naptime

I asked Chris to take this picture yesterday when Ben and I were on the couch. Ben is really fun when he’s got a full tummy and is sleepy. It’s tempting for me, sometimes, to spend the whole day on the couch, letting him sleep on my chest. It’s relaxing.

Last night the pediatrician told us that Ben is now 7lbs, 1 ounce! He’s getting to be a chunker. He’s still two weeks away from his original due date, and the doctors told us that if he’d been full-term, he would have been 8 or 9 pounds.

Ben has three pairs of pants that are his size - two, actually, that are made for babies 0-7 lbs., and a third, these yellow pants. These are made for babies 8-12 pounds, but I decided to try them out. He’d had them on for a few hours and looked like an old man, with his waistline up around his ribs. He wasn’t happy:



(Notice the silver band on my left hand above - my wedding band still doesn’t fit so I bought one for 14.99 at Target. Chris even noticed people looking at my left hand when we’ve been out. It was starting to make me feel weird, so now I feel better.)


The pediatrician also told us that Ben will be on his caffeine dosage probably until 01/01/07. He said that, along with that, we’d probably have to keep Ben on his apnea monitor until November or December - and maybe even until the first of the year. Every time the apnea monitor’s memory card gets full, the data on it gets sent to CHOP. A specialist there sends a report with recommendations to Ben’s doctor.

I almost cried when I heard he’d be on caffeine for so long, and the monitor too, but if that’s our worst news of this week, or this month, then we’re fortunate. Plus, the monitor actually helps me sleep most nights. I know something’s watching over him. I can rest assured knowing he’s okay.

Another thing I’m thankful for is medical insurance. We’ve been getting bills since I returned from the hospital, but the other day we got a big one.

On the day Ben was born, his hospital bills totaled somewhere around $165,000. Just for 8/23 alone. The subsequent days were considerably less, and I haven’t added up our bills completely, but I’m really thankful that we were covered under excellent insurance. I don’t know what we’d do if we didn’t have such good coverage. It’s something to be incredibly thankful for.

Chris goes back to work on Monday. I’m really nervous about being by myself at home, but I know things will be just fine. Another thing I’m thankful for is the fact that he has been able to take so much time - 3 weeks - to be home with us. It’s helped me immeasurably and I don’t know what I would have done without him being home. That and our family chipping in so much has really been a Godsend.

I bought the Miracle Blanket for Ben. It’s a blanket designed to help you swaddle babies. It works well to help babies calm down and feel secure, like they did in the womb. Above is a shot of Ben snoozing this afternoon.

Have a good weekend!