Got Tubes?

At 6am we (Graham and I) headed to the surgery center to have tubes placed in Graham's ears. Mom met us there and Graham was rather confused to see her! We filled out paper work and then they took us back to the pre-op area. Mimi stayed in the lobby while I went back with Graham to get him ready for his little procedure. It really hit me while we were in pre-op that he's becoming a little boy -- I mean, they had him stand up next to the door to see how tall he was.....this was a first!! At the peds they lay him down and measure him! He's only 28" tall (and 23 lbs!)!
After we found out his height, I sat in a rocking chair and changed him into his hospital gown. Dr. S was the anesthesiologist - he immediately fell in love with Graham's big blue eyes! 15 minutes before they were to take Graham back, they gave him a little "loopey juice" or Versed. I was amazed that it kicked in so quickly! Instead of climbing my shoulder and wanting to explore all of the machines, he settled down and was cuddling me in my lap...oh how I miss those days! Poor baby, his eyebrows were raised so high as he was trying to keep his eyes open. Dr. C came in and talked about the procedure again, and then his "surgical 'team'" came and took him away. I admit I was a little misty eyed watching them carry my limp baby back to the OR. I so badly wanted to go back with him, but wasn't allowed because of another family being there. They took him back around 7:08; at 7:20, Dr. C was out in the lobby telling Mom and I how well he did. Apparently he had a lot of thick puss filled (sorry I know it's gross) fluid behind his eardrum that Dr. C evacuated before putting the tubes in. Just as she walked away and told me that they would call me to go back to recovery in 10 minutes, the phone rang asking me to go to recovery. I was prepared for a scared, crying baby. But NOTHING could have prepared me for the next hour. Graham was Screaming; I mean thrashing about; he would suck two or three sucks on the nunu and then hit his ear and scream! I felt so helpless. I am his mom; I am supposed to be able to comfort him, but there was NOTHING that I could do to calm him down. Mom and I passed him to each other. The nurse kept reassuring me (well - she tried) that this was normal. Normal? For him to scream like this? For him to pull at his ear? To not go to sleep after screaming for an hour? I finally was so fed up and was hurting FOR him. I decided that maybe he would do better in his own environment. So we packed up getting HORRIBLE discharge instructions. I got Graham in his car seat and he was still crying pretty badly. We headed home and he finally fell asleep about 10 minutes into the ride -- of course that means that he slept all of 7 minutes max. We got home, Mom came and helped get us settled and Graham was starting to bounce back. He sat on the floor and played with Mom for a few minutes and every few minutes his tummy would get hard and he would cry out. I tried Mylicon (had to dust off the package and refamiliarize myself with the dosing!! It's been so long since we've used it!) and I'm not sure if he got relief or not. At 9:30 Dr. C called and asked if he was asleep, to which I answered NO. She said that it would take 4 hours of sleep to get the anesthesia out of his system so she called in a Tylenol with Codeine to help him sleep. Once that was in him, he slept for 2 1/2 hours. After that nap he was a new baby!!!!! Thank God!
He was pretty low key as far as playing today. He didn't have much energy. He went to bed around 8:20 and is sawing zzzz's right now! I pray that he has a restful night tonight! I want him to be free of pain/pressure. I want him to start hearing words and sounds like they are supposed to be heard!!! I know this is selfish - but I hope that I am able to sleep tonight -- I'm worried that something would happen to him and I wouldn't know....so please pray for peace tonight! I have a picture of Graham with Nurse Angelle (she was WONDERFUL!) before his medicine. I will upload it tomorrow!
For now -
May we all Sleep in Heavenly Peace...
Love,
Jeff, Lauren & Graham

Graham's first experience at the fair

I know, I know.... I really need to make myself keep this updated!!!
Last week was the Parish Fair.....so mom and I loaded Graham up and headed over to see the animals. The fair didn't start until Thursday evening but the animals were being shown Thursday afternoon....which meant we were able to see them without the annoying sounds of the fair!! When we got into the Animal Pavillion (for lack of a better word) we were greeted by a boy who was in 7th or 8th grade....but he wasn't any old boy - he was the proud owner of not one, not two, not even three - but FOUR first place hens!!! He was holding one of them in his arms and Graham wasn't quite too sure of what to think of the boy or his feathered friend (as evidenced by the picture on the right). In fact, Graham was terrified of the chickens that were caged; he began to scale mom when she was showing him the chickens.

After bypassing the chickens, we moved on to the bunnies....Graham LOVED the bunny rabbits!!! He was very excited to be able to pet them - even if it was through the cage!!! His smile was absolutely precious! He was so happy that he started squealing!!!

After we were able to pull Graham away from the bunny cages we headed into the petting area. Graham was ABSOLUTELY THRILLED that there was a bunny that he could pet that wasn't in a cage!

I have a few more pictures but I keep getting an error message when trying to upload them - so check back for a few more pics!

It's so hard for me to believe that my baby boy will be one in a matter of days. He's not a baby anymore, although he will always be my baby! I know - it sounds so cliche. He is playing much more independently now. When I sit and watch him play, it's amazing to see his little wheels turning in his head - especially when he tries to figure out how he can accomplish something. For instance, this morning he saw the remote control (which is a No-no) on the couch. He crawled across the living room to get one of the stars from his star-stacker, crawls back to the couch, and stands on the one star. He thought that the star that is an inch high was going to be enough to have him reach the remote. When he realized that it wasn't going to work - he crawled to another toy, brought it to the couch, tried again....this went on a few more times until he realized he couldn't get to it! I know that he will be climbing before I know it!

We saw the ENT yesterday and Graham will be getting tubes on Friday. I'm relieved to know that he will soon have relief from all of the pressure of the fluid in his ears! Unfortunately he was started on yet ANOTHER antibiotic. He is usually really good at taking medicine, but he gags so badly on this one. :(

I know this is long - but a funny story that happened yesterday. When Graham wakes up in the morning he usually takes a bottle and then a little while later he eats his breakfast. Yesterday morning he had his bottle around 7 and at 7:55 he started crawling from the office to the kitchen. He would crawl 3 crawls and turn around like he was saying "are you following me" then he would crawl 3 times and turn around....he did this until he got to his high chair where he pulled up and started smacking his lips! He was ready for breakfast! The child never ceases to amaze me!

I hope that you all are doing well!!! Please, leave us a comment to let us know that you stopped by! We'd love to know who is keeping up with us - and we'll do the same when we check in on you!
Grace & Peace,
Jeff, Lauren & Graham