It has been about a month since our last post and in that time we have had 3 appointments… technically those three appointments all took place over the span of 7 days, 2 in Iowa City and 1 in West Union – so there have been a few changes!

Thursday (8th) we had an appointment with the orthopedic specialist that is heading Rowan’s case and for the most part we left quite encouraged. The surgeon is on a similar page and is, only wanting to do surgery if and when it would truly be beneficial. So rather than start cutting up Rowan’s arm we are resuming the process of stretching the arm and fingers in a way that gets them to a more neutral state. To help with this stretching, however, they had a special brace made that holds his arm straight. This will hopefully help him start to hold his arm out more, rather than hold it tight against his chest, but will also help keep the skin more flexible incase they end up needing to do a surgery alter. If we do a surgery it would be to shift the fingers to a more central state and/or shift the pointer finger to function like a thumb (the thumb is missing on his left hand).

Friday (9th) he then had his 6 month appointment, no big revelations other than he is still small… literally off the charts small, 11lb 14oz. He also got his latest round of shots, which he of course wasn’t a fan of, but no ill effects aside from fatigue.

Wednesday (14th) we went back to Iowa City to meet with a radiology where he drank a liquid with a reactive dye to see how narrow his esophagus was, the answer being very! So we are still only allowed to feed him milk and formula for the time being, with the hospital scheduling us for some more dilations in the coming weeks or months. Like while we were in the NICU this will involve a device being placed in the throat and then expanded stretching the tissue making the opening wider. Once the device is removed, however, the esophagus will retract, but how much so is unknown so there is a chance it could take 1 procedure, or it could take many (each being one to a few weeks apart). These will hopefully be outpatient procedures, but if need be we are fortunate to have friends, family, and the Ronald McDonald house there who we can reach out to if we need a place to crash for a night.

Praises

SLEEP! – We have been working on sleep training and finally we are at a point where we can go to bed around 10, wake up to feed Rowan around 4-5, then sleep again until 7-8; it is glorious! Up until now one of us was up with him from 10p-3a, then the other took over from 3a-8a.

Praise & Worship – this isn’t Rowan related, but we just finished a sermon series I called Modern Day Psalms. Each week we finished our worship set with a certain song, then I preached a sermon inspired by that song, after which we sang the song again and while I am biased I planned the series, so naturally I loved it and I feel I am far more worshipful than I have been in the last few months – tell your pastors they need to do this!

Momlife – This is less me and more Caitlin and I’m putting words in her mouth so… maybe I’m completely wrong… but Caitlin has been an official stay at home mom now for a little over a month and being able to better set and maintain schedules for the boys, me being able to see them when I come home for lunch, and the like has been awesome I think for both of us. Is it hard? Yes – her social circle for ½ her waking hours is a 6 month and 2 year old. We cut our household income by 75%. We lost our amazing health insurance. But all that is worth it (for us – we understand it isn’t for everybody)!

Prayer Requests

Dilation – while Rowan has had many of these procedures already in his few months, those were all while he was very young and before our initial discharge from the hospital. So while this should feel like old hat, it is quite new. Pray we have peace while Rowan is in surgery and pray that it goes well and his throat takes well to the stretching!

Travel – Thursday night we pack up the boys and Lily (our adorable cockapoo) and drive down to the Dallas area where Caitlin and the boys will stay with her folks for a week, meanwhile I will then fly from Dallas to San Diego where I will attend a conference for our denomination (Wesleyan). Pray the long drive goes great down and back and that both boys will be able to sleep for most of the trip, this will be the furthest Rowan has ever traveled and the first time we’ve gone this far in our van (hopefully it is far more comfortable than the crossover was).

Peace – Not boys related, but while at the conference I am interviewing for ordination (then I can go by Reverend Brian rather than Pastor Brian). The process isn’t difficult – but I’ve never been one to enjoy being on the receiving side of an interview – I can interview others all day (I miss interviewing board game designers… those were good days… YouTube GamersRemoser if you’re curious to know what I mean…) Pray that I can have peace and represent myself well so I can be ordained this summer!

Thanks everyone for the prayer, the cards, the gifts, the text messages, the emails, and everything else – it means so much!

The Bremners!