First Days at Home

On Friday we brought Bennett home from the hospital, and it has been an adventure having him here. He's starting to catch on to how to eat, how to sleep, and all of that good stuff.

We did find out Saturday morning that he was on the borderline for needing to be under lights over the weekend because of a high bilirubin level. Our nurse at the BYU Health Center called a pediatrician, and they decided to play it safe and set us up with a home phototherapy kit, so he has been "under the lights" quite a bit over the weekend.

Aside from a few issues with learning how to eat, he has been pleasant and fun so far. His Nana discovered that he can already imitate faces. During one of his rare "awake and alert" moods, she made a puckered face, and 5-10 seconds later, he made the same face. Ryan tried the same thing later with an open-mouth face, and he managed to copy that one as well. In another developmental milestone, during his first tummy time today he managed to find just enough strength in his neck to move his face from one side to the other, and he did it 3-4 times within 10 minutes.

Early Sunday morning (i.e. 4 am) Ashley had an exciting first experience with changing his diaper. (Ryan had been taking the lead in that department, but in a kind gesture to aid Ryan's sleep, she took a turn.) As she laid him down, he promptly spit up. After cleaning that up, she carefully changed the diaper while meticulously covering his "wetting weapon." However, just as she uncovered it for an instant to switch to the clean diaper, he gave her his worst, resulting in a certain amount of precipitation in the general vicinity. Ryan woke up instantly, either from the precipitation or from Ashley saying, "Well, THAT couldn't have gone any worse!" Needless to say, Ryan has changed all the diapers today.

In other news, tomorrow (Monday) is a big day for Bennett, as he will have his bilirubin level checked again in the morning, followed by his circumcision and first post-hospital appointment with a pediatrician in the afternoon. It is not likely to be a very comfortable day for him, so keep him in your thoughts and prayers!


Getting dressed before leaving the hospital.

Ready to go. He's probably crying because his clothes don't fit.

Lookin' good.



I think his sleeves are a little long.

These are the only pictures of herself that Ashley would allow on the blog. If you want to see the other cute ones of Ashley and Bennett, you can email Ryan.



He looks like this a lot right now.

Our little angel.

In Mommy's arms.

When I'm hungry, I go to the fridge. When Bennett's hungry, he eats his blanket.

Here's Bennett's "tanning bed." He'll fit in quite well by the time we move to Southern California.


His Nana gave him his first bath today. We expected him to be fussy, but he actually really enjoyed it!