Benson update

We have had some of the strangest issues with our sweet little Benson! The latest being: I was changing his diaper last week and noticed some small streaks of blood in his stool. This, of course, totally scared me, so we went in to see what the doctor had to say about it. He did a hemacult which is where they take a sample of poopy from the diaper and put it on a little test strip and pour some stuff on it. If there is blood in it, the blood specks show up blue. Even though it looked like he had just a little blood, when the doctor poured the liquid on it, the entire test strip turned blue! He said that meant that his stool was full of microscopic blood and that he had some sort of bleeding in his intestines. Never having heard of this before, we were completely shocked and wondered at the cause. After a week of various tests, it turns out Benson has Milk Protein Intolerance which means that his stomach cannot digest cow's milk. (Not to be confused with lactose intolerance: an inability to break down the sugar in milk) Of course he doesn't DRINK cow's milk, he drinks mine, but anything I eat or drink, he does too. So milk, cheese, butter, or anything with any of those ingredients such as bread, cream, etc. are what was making him sick.

So we wanted to know how to get him well. Initially, the doctor said that we could put him on this special hypoallergenic formula that would cost about $100 a week.  The fact that it would cost an arm and a leg to do this special hypoallergenic formula gives me even more motivation to do whatever it takes to keep breastfeeding. He said that I could continue breastfeeding if I could avoid all dairy and soy (a percentage of babies who are allergic to milk protein are also allergic to soy protein.) So now mama's on a strict dairy free diet eating mostly meat and veggies so that baby has a happy tummy. So far, it seems to be going well. We will reevaluate on Friday to make sure he doesn't have any more blood in his stool. Please pray with us that it will be clear and that the dairy free diet will solve this problem. I'll post later with the updates!

Sock it to him, Hannah! Look at those bright eyes... pretty girl!
We went to visit Papa at his school. He was so proud of his grandson!

First smile!

Ashley caught this smile with her camera phone. What a cutie pie!

Benson rolled over!

Benson rolled over all by himself!! His head looks really large at the beginning of the video.. granted it IS rather large, which may have something to do with him having a wobble head most of the time, but he rolled over none-the-less! Way to go baby boy! He's growing up so fast!

I have the cutest nephew in the world!

Click here to see more pictures of my adorable nephew Will. Benson's favorite boy cousin!

Summer is a fun time to be a baby!

We took Benson to see the Purple Martins on Lake Murray. (click on the picture to enlarge it so you can see some of the birds flying around in the background) It has been estimated that over 703,000 purple martins fly to this one island in the middle of Lake Murray each night to nest. They fly out the next morning only to return again in droves at sunset. It is truly a natural phenomenon and one that causes me to praise the Author and Creator of such a marvel. Too bad Benson can only see like a foot in front of his face at this point. He decided just to sleep the whole time :)
Layne and Mark came down from North Carolina to visit for the weekend. Benson thought they were so cool... right here he's saying.. "Yessss! Wayne's weawy coowol."
This is Benson with his sad face on. He was so disappointed to hear that his friends Carrie and Daniel are moving to Texas. We keep trying to tell him that they are going there to tell people about Jesus and to serve Him, but he just can't believe he only got to live in the same town with them for eight weeks. He declares that eight weeks is just not long enough! But at least now we have a great reason to take a trip to the lonestar state! He's pretty pumped about that.
Mr. Reeves and Ms. Hilda came over to see the wee-one. They brought homemade peach ice cream. (the fruit, not the dog) It was definitely the best I've ever had! We had a great time visiting with them! They are some of the most generous people we have ever met! What a blessing!