A New Day

Today was such an amazing day in the world of recovery!  It was seriously like a night and day difference from yesterday.   So many milestones and so much joy for this mama!

The day started off tricky.  We actually had a GREAT night of sleep, and his pain was managed well through the night.  He didn't wake up at all until 4:00am.  At that point he did struggle to get back to sleep, but it wasn't because of pain.  It was just regular 4:00am Kyrie stuff, wanting snuggles and having trouble falling back asleep. But in the morning Kyrie was feeling really sorry for himself and was crying and whining because he wanted to eat food.  And see his brothers.  And go home.  I was afraid it was going to be a very long day.  And I was solo with Ky this morning because David was spending some time at home with our other boys.

This is what pain free sleep gets you :)
And when I take pictures I can generally get eyes open, OR a smile.  Not often both.  

But then we learned the play room was open.  Kyrie perked right up and wanted to go play there!  So off we went.  It was our longest walk yet and he was like a new fresh kid up in that room.  We played kitchen and he didn't even get sad that he was creating pretend meals and he wasn't actually allowed to eat!

Playing kitchen.  Talking through the whole thing.  Making me cookies
and pancakes and hamburgers in the toaster.  I saw my normal, goofy Kyrie
for the first time since the surgery!

We came back down for his pain meds and the nurses told us Kyrie was allowed to have a few sips of water.  Yay!!  This made his day.  He didn't so much sip, but drank it down with glee.  Then the nurse said we would also be removing his catheter.  Yikes!  And Dave wasn't even here for support.  Kyrie was terrified.  And the nurses came in and did a wonderful job on making it a quick process.  Last night we had a painful mishap with the catheter, so I knew getting it out was going to be a great thing. But ouch.  Ouch, ouch, ouch.  My boy screamed like any grown man would've when getting a catheter removed.  He cried for a little bit after, but when I mentioned the play room again, he was good to go!  Up we went for a few more minutes of play before it closed.

WATER!!  First thing he could eat or drink since Thursday.  Yes, THURSDAY!
He generally doesn't even like water, but drank it right up!

This time when we came back we met up with our surgeon to check in.  He assured me that Kyrie was right on track with recovery, even though he hadn't had any gas or bowel movements yet.  He was thrilled to see Kyrie up and about and smiling.  So that gave me a lot of hope that things were right as they should be.

The rest of the day it was very difficult to get Kyrie to stay in bed.  He wanted to be up and walking around and playing.  All great things!  He got sillier and sillier as they day went on, which is also so good.  That continued to show me how my boy must be feeling better and getting back to his regular goofy self.

Then this evening, I left a little before dinner to meet Ezra and Kingston for dinner.  On my way there, David called me to tell me that Kyrie has started passing gas.  I've never said a prayer of thanksgiving for gas before today.  When I got back to the hospital, Kyrie told me he tooted 10 or 3 or 11 times.  Hooray!  He got to eat some more ice chips and was in the BEST mood.

And then the best part of my day yet.  You are going to think I'm the weirdest ever.  But my little boy asked to go to the bathroom and he POOPED!!!  Now, not only is this awesome news in terms of his recovery,

BUT.

Kyrie is four years old.  In four years of his life, he has never, NEVER been able to just go in the bathroom and poop.  He has tried many, many, many times.  Multiple times a day.  No success.  Just incontinence in his pull up that he had no control over.  Ever.

Let that sink in a minute.

Although he desperately wanted to, and saw his twin brother do it daily, and probably always felt like he had to... He could not poop.  His body would not let him.

So when I sat there with him and watched this amazing success, I seriously teared up.  This is such a huge milestone in his life.  This is such an amazing little miracle for our family.  This ridiculous, rare disease that has had us stumped for four years, put us through multiple surgeries and countless doctor's visits is finally, slowly, being overcome.  When he realized what was happening, his face lit up.  You guys, you would have seriously cried right along with me when you saw the pride on my baby's face!  The sweetest little four year old "YAY!!!" came out of his mouth.  He was in as much awe as me.  It was so great.

And then he got to come out of the bathroom and share his big news with some friends we had visiting.  And then out in the hall to tell our nurse.  And every other nurse out there.

This happened right before bedtime.  He's peacefully asleep now.  And I'm on cloud NINE!  Every. Single. Prayer request that I listed last night has been answered.  Every one.  Thank you so much for praying for us.  Thank you for supporting us and loving us, and celebrating all these milestones right along with us.

Wow.  Just wow.  Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings for my tough little guy!