Good News Continues :)

Another day, another huge step forward! Things didn't exactly start off too good, but leave it to the pediatric surgeon to brighten the day. Bentley was quite agitated and unsettled for most of the night which, of course, made Nicole's night one of unrest as well. She felt he was hungry, but was repeatedly told that he couldn't eat anything until there was no more of the mucousy build up in his stomach. The other upsetting thing was that the I.V., which had recently been put into his scalp, was going to get moved again, this time as a pic line to be fed through a vein in his hand, up his arm, and into his chest close to the heart. Then the surgeon came to assess him for the first time. She first told the NICU staff that Bentley should be eating and the tube could be removed from his stomach, then she told Nicole that she would be able to cut the umbilical cord from the omphalocele, which means we then get to finally hold him, and she continued to say how pleased she was at how the omphalocele had a nice wide base with more skin than she had anticipated. The condition of the omphalocele will drastically cut down the amount of time we will have to wait before it can be surgically closed, rumoured to be as soon as one month! Fantastic compared to the 6 or 9 months that it can sometimes take. So at 3:00 this afternoon, Bailey and I were there when Ben ate for the first time. He did great, but was a little over indulgent and ended up spitting most of it up. For his next feeding, Brooklyn fed him through a tube with a syringe as he was a little too tired to wake up to eat with the bottle. He kept that down and has since had a couple more successful feedings, Nicole says he would eat way more than what they are giving him if he could. He's so hungry. We have been told that he will get transferred to the Children's Hospital maybe on Monday which means better care and, because he's doing so well, he may not even need to be in the ICU after they move him. We're very blessed that he is able to make such big leaps forward and that so many of you are praying for him. We know there will still be ups and downs and are trying to stay grounded, but this little guy is showing that nothing is going to keep him down.

Until next time...
Chris