Benigno Erasmo David

mom gave benig a bath for the first time this weekend.  he got pretty slippery — like a wet frog she said.

Ben ripped his NG tube out for the fifth and last time about four days ago.  He’s been feeding solely by bottle ever since!

In the middle of feeding a preemie a bottle of milk, one is supposed to pause the feed to burp the preemie. I think the rationale is to get out any air that he/she swallowed to make room for more milk and to make him/her more comfortable for the rest of the feeding.  Also, it [...]

Preemies communicate often in ways other than crying. They do in fact cry to try to communicate a need, but they also have other ways of telling us they are in distress. These include hiccoughing, sneezing, and finger splaying. It took us a while to recognize that these things were signs of distress in Ben [...]

Ben has recently been moving to bottling more and more of my breast milk (and having fewer and fewer of his feeds given through the NG tube).  Feeding preemies by bottle is considered more challenging than full term babies since they are still in the process of learning to coordinate sucking, swallowing, and breathing.  If [...]

I had this realization yesterday as I was comparing the pictures below of Ben that Lawrence uploaded.  It’s obvious to most but seemed incredible to me (in the un-credible sense): all of Ben’s growth has been due to nourishment from me.  Since conception and til now, every cell of his has been sustained solely through [...]

“That’s just cruel.” That was the response our primary nurse had to Lawrence when she heard him laughing at Ben-Ben.  He had been kangaroo-ing with Ben-Ben this weekend when, as usual, Ben-Ben began rooting.  It probably takes Ben anywhere from 5-15 minutes to make his way to Lawrence’s nipple.  In the past, he has gotten [...]

now that he’s bottle-feeding regularly, benig has been moved out of his isolette and into what looks like a large tupperware bin.  the bins make caring for him much easier, since you’re not constricted by arm ports.  but, the bins aren’t heated, which can be problematic when hospital thermostats are set in the 60s.  we’ll [...]

benig just hit his gestational age of 35 weeks on friday.  a look back at week 34: benig hit 2200 grams (4 lbs, 13 oz). benig got taken off the caffeine he was taking to prevent apnea spells benig learned how to drink from a bottle mom and dad also crossed the refrigeration rubicon: we [...]

In the first days of life, Ben-Ben had issues passing bowel movements, requiring suppositories to help him along.  His movements became more regular until my breast milk began being fortified with extra calories and iron, since the volume of breast milk he can presumably handle, based on his weight, does not provide the adequate number [...]