familiar change

with our 3rd week behind us we are slowly getting into the groove of things. when i say slowly, i mean s.l.o.w.l.y.....it still feels very weird and different around here. i'm not worrying about it too much because its all going to change again after this week. but it will be a familiar and easier change. owen is going to have a feeding tube put back in. nick and i couldn't be more ready to have this done. right now we are having to force every sip he takes. which is so hard for us to beleive because before the swap it was the exact opposite....extreme opposite!!!! we were forcing him to STOP drinking so much. here is how the dr explained whats going on to us: before owen was always borderline dehydrated because of his poor kidney function (it functioned at 15-10%) so he made up for it by drinking non-stop. now he has 100% kidney function and doesn't feel the need to drink. but because nick's kidney is use to getting a much bigger volume of fluid due to the size of nick compared to the size of owen. owen has to take in extra fluid to keep up with nicks kidney so there is no permanent damage. so putting this feeding tube back in will make it so we're not fighting with him to drink all day every day and we will have peace of mind that he's getting all his fluids. plus it will also make it so much easier to give him the meds. which are down to 11 daily meds from 13....yippee!!! owen had a feeding tube for about 3 1/2 years so this is nothing new to us. for the most part owen always did really well with it so i'm more than happy to welcome it back into our lives. the only thing i'm not so happy about is that this will another surgery for owen #18 and another hospital stay. it should be happening on friday with a 1-2 night stay. on wednesday we go meet with the surgeon (same one that did the kidney swap) and get all the details. besides all that owen is doing really great. his diarrhea is much better. and i'm actually seeing signs of maybe getting him potty trained :-) owen has even gotten used to the mask he has to wear when out or around lots of people. he is such a amazing and brave little man. nick is doing great, really only feels it when he is doing too much. liv and noah are both doing wonderful as well this last week. noah still loves doing everything owen is doing. he follows him all around. owen doesn't like having noah around so much. he locks his bedroom door a lot to keep him out or constantly screams "no noah" if he's not locked himself in his room. it's a real treat to be around :-/

noah hanging out with owen while he goes potty

noah wanted a mask too while we were at wal-mart.....so sweet. owen's eyes are closed on purpose again.

i just thought that this tree looked amazing last week, it made me smile every time i came home. now all the leaves are on the ground :-(....i wish fall lasted longer!!

i want to thank every one that brought us yummy meals and gifts this last week. it really helped make the week a little easier. we feel so loved. also a big thank you to nick's aunt janet for helping with noah. as always thank you to everyone else for all the good thoughts, words, prayers, love and hopes. we wouldn't be able to make without all our amazing family and friends!!!!!