Ben's new head

Here's a pic of Ben's forehead before surgery:



And here's one of him afterwards:

He's still pretty swollen, but I'm really amazed a the difference. His face is still a little crooked - his nose slants slightly to the right and his jaw is a little crooked.
Ben's doctor said we'll just have to wait and see if he grows out of that or not - if not we may have to make some more corrections later to make sure his jaw is lined up properly. He was super cranky for a few days and his sleep schedule is really messed up - he was awake from 12:30-3 last night - but he's already starting to get back to his old self and it's only been a week!

Will has been a real angel through all of this. He's being so good and gentle with Ben, which kis kind of unlike him. :) He gives him hugs now and actually seemed happy to see him when we got home. He got a stylish new haircut before we went for Ben's surgery.

Everything has really worked out so well for us - Ben has been through a lot but we're keeping our fingers crossed that the worst is over and now he can get down to just being a regular little baby.

We're Home!

We're back! Ben had his surgery last Wednesday and we got home from the hospital on Sunday. Everything went as well as it could have. It wasn't easy for poor little Ben - his eyes were swollen shut for days and the dressing on his head was covering his ears, so he was really freaked out. He's been super velcro baby ever since and has to be held constantly. But I think he's entitled!

He has to go get a helmet now because the doctor couldn't get his head exactly right in the surgery - it was too crooked. But they shaved all of his hair off, so at least the helmet will keep his little bald head warm. If you'd like to see pictures of Ben in the hospital you can see them here. They aren't gory but they are really sad - poor little guy.

Thanks for all your prayers and positive thoughts everyone - they seem to have worked! :)

The ultimate nude photo

These are the pictures of Ben's skull taken with a CT scan. The black lines that look like cracks are open sutures and are supposed to be there - they're what allow the skull to expand to leave room for the brain to grow. You can see that over his left eye there's a smooth ridge instead of an open suture like over the right eye. That's where the plate over his left eye has fused to the bone behind it prematurely - it's pulled everything else on his face slightly askew.



This is a picture of the top of his head with the bottom being his forehead. You can see a suture line running off to the (Ben's) right and one going down the middle of his forehead but not one to the left - there's an indentation where it's supposed to be but the surface is smooth. You can also see the bulge that's above his right eye - it looks like a goose egg. I'm not sure if the main suture running down the middle of his head is supposed to run that crooked - I sure hope not!

They've scheduled Ben's surgery for next Wednesday, August 23rd. They're basically going to take his forehead off, reshape the bones, and reattach them with dissolvable plates. It's so bizarre to me that you can take a bone out of someone's body and then put it back in and it will continue to grow! All of this has been a real crash course in medical technology.

I got a new baby carrier for Ben called a Mei Tai. The sling wasn't working too well - since Ben has low muscle tone he kind of flops around a lot and doesn't hold himself upright as well as some babies, so I needed something that was a little more secure. He LOVES this thing and insists on taking his afternoon nap in it. That will be a lot more pleasant when it's under 80 degrees outside!

Well despite everything else Will's doing great. Here he is with his daddy drawing choo-choos and signals (his two favorite works of art). Whe we draw with sideawlk chalk our driveway always ends up looking like a roadmap with lots of different trains, cars, and crossings.

Here's a cute picture of him and Ben together. It's always a challenge to get them together because Will doesn't really like the camera and really doesn't like Ben touching him. So this was a great accomplishment! Will's new word for the week is "sometimes". He'll say "Claire bite you sometimes!". (Claire is one of our cats) He usually deserves it if Claire bites him, by the way.

We got him a rubber booster seat that sits in a regular chair so he doesn't have to use a high chair anymore, and he's totally obsessed with it. It came UPS and he was there when we got it, so I told him it was a present and just for him, a special big boy chair! Which worked a little too well, as he had to sit in it while I read him his bedtime stories and he insisted on taking it to bed with him as well. I snuck it out of his crib before I went to sleep - he had it cuddled up next to him like a stuffed animal or something. And guess who woke up at 3 AM asking for his "booter seat"?

2 surgeries down, 1 to go!

Little Ben did very well with his testicle surgery. They found it and brought it down where it's supposed to be and tacked it into place. He has two incisions, one tiny one and one slightly larger one on his abdomen. They didn't put any stitches in it - it's just sealed shut with dermabond! Anyway everything's healing beautifully and he's pretty much back to normal as of today. I haven't heard anything yet about exactly when the next surgery will be (the head one) - I think it's going to be in October sometime.

Will had a great time with Grandma and Grandad last weekend while we were at the hospital! They played trains and made brownies and generally had fun. Can you believe I didn't get the first picture of their visit? I know I was distracted, but still!

OK this is why I don't get to update this blog very often - while I was typing the two paragraphs above Will somehow found a bottle of apricot oil and poured half of onto the recliner upholstry. Anybody kow how to get apricot oil out of chenille? Well at least it smells good. I'm just going to pretend it's not there for a while so I can finish this.

Last week was very exciting for Will. We got to play in the fountain at Northlake Mall with his friend Kaylee, and we also found a caterpillar in the garage. The caterpillar was a source of great amazement and excitement. We had to bring him inside and put him on the table. According to Will he was hungry, so we tried to feed him some lettuce, or "salad" as Will calls it. Eventually we took him outside and let him go on a tree. Will sometimes still goes looking for him there. :)