Benziger babes

Yesterday was Theo's actual due date (8/8/12) and in the NICU the babies get a little "due date party" so we thought we'd have some friends over to celebrate! We made cupcakes, brownies and busy day dessert and watched the beach volleyball final. He slept through most of his party but wooed the ladies with his spontaneous smiles and big blue eyes when we put him on his tummy for some "tummy time" (until he started crying - see video below). He's almost 4 weeks old now and a great eater and is growing fast! This is where I spend a lot of my day! Happy Due Date Theo!!  Theo unsure what to think of "tummy time". Daddy falls asleep on the couch with Theo almost everyday after work.

My friends and I were taking a nice walk in the park a mere four blocks from my house on a lovely summer Seattle day when one of them asked if I wanted to take Theo and go to Bainbridge Island for dinner. I was proud of myself for getting him out and going for a walk a mile from our house every day, which so far had gone pretty well, but were we ready to get on a ferry and go to an island? Why not? I thought. We can't stay home forever! We had been out for two hours on our walk and going to Bainbridge was going to be a long time away from the comforts of our living room with the new glider and the 24/7 Olympics coverage that have become our daily routine. We decided to go for it. An hour later we were scrambling to feed and change Theo, get the diaper bag packed, car seat installed, and arrive in time to get a ticket for the 3:45pm ferry. We unfortunately missed it but we weren't in a rush so we caught the 4:40pm instead. We carried Theo on in the baby sling I ...

We have been home from the hospital for two weeks now. WOW! It took us a week to get settled in and as I said before it was a blessing to have my mother, JoAnn, come help us those first few days. We took Theo on his first outing - a free outdoor concert by the Seattle Chamber Music Society in Volunteer Park last week. It was a lovely summer evening and we had a nice picnic with a few friends in the park while listening to Dvořák and Tchaikovsky. It was nice to get out of the house and enjoy a normal night out. Now we have the London Olympics to watch 24/7 which is amazing for those night feeds! We had our two-week well-child visit today with his pediatrician. He's growing like a weed, nearly 7 pounds! We can tell he's growing because his cries louder and he is holding up his head better when we burp him on our shoulder. Over the past two days, Theo is also sleeping more - nearly four hours at a time - which is much preferred for us compared to last week when he only slept ...

The hospital had a wonderful photographer in-house, Mary Kalhor with Bella Baby Photography, who took photos of babies right before they are discharged home. Theo was wide awake for his first photo shoot and very photogenic! We couldn't resist and splurged on a CD of the images because we couldn't decide on just one pose to buy. Which is your favorite? Enjoy!

   Our little baby, Theodore James, was born at Swedish Hospital in Seattle last week. He was born early because mom developed some preeclampsia which necessitated his sooner-than-expected delivery. Boy was he a peanut - weighing in at 5 lbs. 9 oz.! He had to spend a few days in the Infant Special Care Unit because he had low blood sugar and needed IV fluids and frequent blood sugar monitoring. He was such a champ and tolerated the heel sticks without a peep and didn't mind the continuous heart rate and oxygen saturation monitoring either. We were lucky that he had a full time nurse watching him so we could get some sleep those first nights but then we quickly became accustomed to his rigorous schedule of feeding every three hours - 3, 6, 9, and 12 around the clock to maintain his blood sugars above a certain level. After four long days in the hospital, we were discharged home. Since coming home, I'd say this was the longest week of my life as it was full of new ...