Saying goodbye to tubes and diapers

On Friday, Feb 29, Brennan's tube feedings were discontinued. He struggled a bit with some vomiting over the weekend but actually did surprisingly well with 100% oral feeds, so on Monday, March 3, his doctor removed his feeding tube!!!

As Tommy told us, "His tube is gone! his bandaids are off!" On March 6 his central line gets removed. According to his doctor, he is now a normal baby with a recovering gut. I never thought hearing the word "normal" applied to my baby would be such a relief. He still seems to have quite a bit of discomfort and struggles with sleep (to put it lightly), but what a huge huge relief to have these very normal problems. We are grateful beyond words for his continued improvement and for the healing that God has done in his little body.

In addition to having Brennan on all oral feeds for the first time, we also engaged in full-on potty training with Tommy. We tried this last summer but he was not quite ready. And he did absolutely GREAT! He is loving his big-boy underpants; he loves his huge basket of Disney Cars that he gets when he accrues enough stickers even more. I've never seen someone able to poop and pee so much in such a short time to get toys! We used the naked technique so have some good pics for bribery in his adolescence, but we wanted to share this one with you.

Tommy continues to crack us up with his endless antics and touch us with his sweet spirit. Tonight he told me as we were praying, "We talk to Jesus up in the sky but we can't hear him. Thank you Jesus for giving us Momma." When he saw me with tears welling up, he then prayed that same thing over and over, ending with, "Cry, Momma!"

Finally, for those of you who know Tommy, you know he has a VERY strong attachment to his little bunny, "Bubba." So strong, in fact, that I special ordered a matching one when he was 10 months old. This double was immediately and continuously rejected and dubbed "fake bubba" by us. Tommy started giving Brennan his own bubba as well as "fake bubba" very early on, which we thought so sweet and tender, as Bubba is his most prized possession. And although I have tried every stuffed animal and blanket in our house, wouldn't you know that "fake bubba" is the one thing Brennan will snuggle? So apparently I can now look forward to searching for not one but two bubbas every time we leave the house. still, seeing our boys with their matching bubbas is quite a sweet sight...

I have been so encouraged by all the positive feedback I've received about this blog, and I am especially grateful to our dear friends, Greg and Joy Ryan, who suggested it and helped me set it up and provided endless support and love to us along this journey. They have a fantastic blog for their little boy, James, who was diagnosed with leukemia last summer. You can learn more about their hilarious and sweet boy at www.babyjamesgregoryryan.blogspot.com


Even though Brennan is doing so great, I'm going to continue to write about our boys and how they're doing if you're interested in getting updates. Thank you again so much!!!

wishing you every blessing in Christ,
Kim & Jeff