You Might Have a Four-Month-Old

If you pull up to a traffic light and have a deep inner struggle about whether you can get a nap in before the light turns green again, you might have a four-month-old . And if you come home and tell your husband about this struggle and instead of being chastised for your lack of safety consciousness, he says he wishes that he thought of it first and will try it the next time he's on the road, you might have a four-month-old. If you get a free hour to go on a date and choose to collapse on a blanket in the park, you might have a four-month-old. And if every shirt in you laundry hamper has drool stains over three inches in diameter, you might have a drooling problem, or you might have a four-month-old.

Thanks to God, a surgeon, and a laser beam, our little Benjamin is now cyst-free. Ben was in surgery for about three hours, and the surgeon said that they were able to get the whole cyst out without any problems. He spent the night at the hospital and was doing well enough that they discharged him on Wednesday evening. Right now we're doing all of his feedings through his stomach tube, which is a two-person job since he's been a lot fussier since the surgery, but hopefully he'll get back to regular feeding some time next week.

The surgeon also told us that the opening to Ben's windpipe is smaller than other kids his age so it may still take a while for him to start breathing normally. He said that it could be years before they take the trach out, but I'm hopeful it will be much sooner than that.

Ben's weight during all of this has been one of our biggest frustrations as he is almost four months old and still under 10 pounds, which puts him in the bottom 3 percent of babies for his age. As you can imagine, this can be pretty stressful for a mom to deal with on top of everything else that's been going on. If you could pray about that situation, we would be grateful.