Hello friends and family!
I can't believe it has 14 weeks since I have last blogged. A LOT has happened since March 19th. Ben started cereal March 24th and hated it. We tried it for a few more days and decided he was not ready for it.
We were waiting for Ben to meet the milestone of rolling over from his back to his front when we found him on March 30th in his crib on his stomach. We knew we didn't put him to bed this way so knew he was busy learning new things in the comfort of his crib.
Ben also laughed out loud for the first time on April 2nd which was up to date the sweetest thing we had ever heard. We discovered he is very ticklish and used it to our advantage to squeeze out a laugh.
We began Ben on regular baby food on April 17th and it was a hit. His first baby food was squash.
April 23rd we went to Marshall to Papa Tom and Grandma Debbie's house for Easter. Ben received his first Easter presents. Family and friends came over and we had a great day!
My first Mother's Day was a great day. My mother came over, we played with Ben and Seth cooked the two of us dinner and dessert. There is nothing better than being a mother!
On May 14th Ben reached out asking to be held for the first time. Daddy was pretty happy to be the recipient of that!
We scheduled an appointment with Ben's craniosynostosis doctor on May 17th and he weighed in at 17 lbs (50th percentile), 26 inches long (75th percentile) and 50th percentile for his head size. We were happy to hear that his head was still growing since issues can begin when the head stops growing with craniosynostosis.
Ben had his first weekend away from home the weekend of May 20th. We went to Marshall to spend time with Lexie (Ben's aunt) before her high school graduation and to go to Richmond for Catie's (Ben's other aunt) graduation. Ben's great grandma and grandpa watched Ben for a couple hours while we went to Lexie's assembly. They had a good time with him and was impressed on how good of a baby he was. Ben's cousin Taylor has such a good time playing with Ben! On the way to Richmond, we ran alongside a tornado forming in a field next to us. Leaves were picking up and it was rotating on the ground. I had never seen the formation of a tornado that close and I hope I never do again. We floored it to Richmond and made it safely. That tornado completed taking shape and ended up touching down in Waverly. Way to close for comfort!
Bob and Carol Hagedorn hosted a Hagedorn family reunion on June 11th at their house. All the kids enjoyed their swimming pool and the adults enjoyed good conversation. It's rare we all get together and it was nice to see everyone!
Seth celebrated his birthday June 14th and we went out to dinner while a good friend of mine, Allison, watched Ben. She expecting her first child September 1st so she was able to get a little bit of practice.
Our last trip away from home was to the Lake of the Ozarks to visit Ben's Papa and MawMaw on the weekend of June 24th. This was the longest car ride Ben had ever been on. The road trip down to the lake was unpleasant. We didn't time it well and left 1 1/2 hours after his feeding time and then hit rush hour traffic. He had a major melt down on the drive down there, he was crying, I was crying and Seth had white knuckles on the steering wheel. We stopped off in Knob Noster and tailgated for feeding time. I was grateful that the drive down there was an indication on how the weekend would go. He loved the boat rides, water, etc and he slept for 12 hours during the night for the first time. We wore him out! Ben met another milestone while we were down at the lake, he said "da-da" on June 25th. Of course Seth was not in the room when he said it but made up for it by saying it over and over on Monday when we got home. He has such a sweet voice, but I have to say it will sound even sweeter when he says "ma-ma".
Ben is getting closer to crawling every day. It's probably about time to start child proofing our home. He will be on the move before too long. He is also really close to sitting up by himself. Currently he sits for a couple of seconds and then falls over.
Ben's head shape is getting worse and bossing on the top front of his head. The doctor has reassured us that this is normal for kids awaiting surgery.
I have been waiting to blog because when we went to see Ben's craniosynostosis doctor on May 17th and we talked to him about moving up his surgery date. We have been waiting to hear back. We are concerned that he won't get it in before his 1 year birthday because if he has even a little sniffle they will not be able to perform surgery. They said they would do everything they could to move it up so we began to wait. They informed us they would get back to us between 2 and 3 weeks. As impatient as I am I tried calling the scheduler at two weeks to see if she had an update. I didn't get a call back so I tried again at three weeks and no return call. Finally I called and got a hold of the nurse practitioner. She informed me that his date was still set for November 28th. I corrected her in saying, "you mean November 22nd". She said, "No, November 28th, we are no longer doing head surgeries during Thanksgiving". I was furious. Not only did they not move the date to an earlier time as requested, they moved it back and did not call to let us know. I voiced my frustration and the nurse practitioner just informed me that he has a full schedule and that is the best they can do. Seth called and left a message for the scheduler to see if she could do anything and we ended up getting a call back from her a week later letting us know that the date is set for November 28th for now and if they have a cancellation, they will let us know. She said the date is a moving target until a month before the surgery date. Wow, that would have been nice to know ahead of time! So, as it stands now we will not be in the hospital during Thanksgiving but we likely be in the hospital for his first birthday, December 2nd. We will plan on having a birthday party before surgery to make up for him having to be in the hospital.
So, that's all of the updates as of now. I will try to update you more frequently from now on. I am back to school for my MBA and so you can imagine how crazy my life has been with a baby, school and work. Thank God for Seth, he has been a great help in picking up my slack.
Until nextime,
Love-Breanne
