Bennett Samuel Hancock

Bennett Samuel Hancock (finally picked a middle name--took us forever!) was born on Thursday, June 25th, 2015 at 8:04 am. He weighed 6 pounds 11 ounces and was 47 cm long. He is beautiful and dark-haired and we love him!

We woke up the morning of June 25th at 4 am because Nolan was throwing up. :( We removed all of his blankets and stuff. Then we laid him back down. By that time, it was like 4:30 am and we decided to just stay up! We went to the hospital at 5:30 am and got checked in.

The c-section was really easy and smooth. With Nolan, I remember shivering in the operating room. This time, I had a heater and blankets, and I felt like I was at the beach! The doctors were laughing and joking through the procedure, which my doctor said was a good sign that things were going well.

It was so fun to hear Bennett cry and I was excited that he was born! Josh followed Bennett, and they stiched me up.

The nurses came back a little while later and said that he had some trouble breathing and was on a CPAP machine in the NICU but that was normal for c-section babies.

After a few hours, they took him off the CPAP machine and brought him down to the nursery. Erin came and my parents came with Nolan. Nolan didn't know what to do with Bennett (he calls him baby Ben). He was more interested in hiding behind the curtains in the hospital room. :)

 While I was holding him, his breathing seemed labored. I told the nurse, and she took him back to the nursery so a respiratory therapist could check it out. After a little while, she came back to tell me that something was wrong with his breathing and they needed to admit him into the NICU.

I just cried. I couldn't believe our experience with Nolan was repeating itself. Bennett was supposed to be my easy baby. My easy pregnancy, delivery. I was supposed to be like the other moms. So I guess I mourned the unfulfilled expectations.

After a few hours in the NICU, they did some x-rays and found that his right lung was small beceause the liver had grown in its lung cavity. Also that the diaphragm was pushed up and that it was dome-shaped. They said they may have to do surgery. When the doctor told me that, I cried. I pretty much cried all day on Thursday. I woke up the next day, Friday with extremely puffy eyes. I was convinced that I would wake up on Friday and he would have died in the night because he stopped breathing. 

Luckily, he did not die in the night and on Friday, he was doing well. They did more x-rays but have decided he doesn't need surgery. They decided to see if it continues to obstruct his breathing or if it will fix itself. He's now off the CPAP machine, has a little oxygen tube but mostly, we're making sure he can eat full meals. Hopefully, he will come home in a few days. :)