Friday morning, before the sun rose, we headed to the Day Surgery center for Lincoln's second round of ear tubes. The girls had gone on a sleep-over, at a dear friend's house to avoid having a 5:30am wake up call. Not that what they got was much different....apparently they could be heard at about 6am chatting away. I was relieved to hear they did well, and enjoyed their sleepover (Sidney's very first night away from home without a parent!).
I can't say enough about how grateful I am for good friends. You know, the kind you can trust your kids' lives with. The kind that offers to take your kids for a sleepover. The kind that treat your kids as their own, complete with 11pm tuck ins and hugs when you "miss my mommy". It takes a village, and we are forever thankful for our village.
Ok, back to the tubes. We arrived at 6:20am (only 5 minutes late), and were able to keep Lincoln happy despite his completely empty stomach. The poor baby hadn't eaten anything since about 9pm the night prior. He let us know that he was unhappy, and that he, above anyone else, would be in charge. As if that is different any other day of the week!
After a quick wait in the lobby where he played catch with a friendly family nearby, we headed back to the pre-op room where our lovely nurse tried her darndest to convince Lincoln for a weigh-in. He wasn't having any of it, and so we did the next best thing. I held him and got weighed, and then got weighed without him and we did the math. Thank goodness it measured in grams ;) We tried getting him into those cute purple PJ's, but he fussed and whinned and we quickly removed them. Again, our dear nurse tried her best, offering white pants (shorter) but he politely shook his head in disagreement. She offered to let us get him dressed in just his own PJ's, but by then, he preferred to run around with nothing. And so, we obliged. I think what was really making him mad (other than being in a strange room with strangers coming in constantly and no one bringing food), was the fact that his ankle bracelet was uncomfortable.
I volunteered to bring him back to the operating room when the time came. Let's be honest, we knew Lincoln would prefer it this way and we didn't want to make him more upset. The time came, and I gowned up, scooped him in my arms, and walked to the OR with yet another nurse. The team in the OR was fantastic, sensing his attitude when we walked in (keep in mind, Lincoln was still just wearing a diaper at this point). He clung to my arms and the entire room tried to help him relax and sang Itsy Bitsy Spider and Pat-A-Cake....the entire room! It was so cute. I had been warned that he wouldn't like the anesthesia mask, and Lincoln proved that. He screamed as I had to hold his arms until his body started to relax and he was taken from my arms and laid on the table. There was a brief moment where I heard his shallow breathing and got alarmed, questioning the anesthesiologist who assured me he was fine and in good hands. I trusted him. I had to. Our ENT was ready to work and I was ushered out to the waiting room with Ryan.
In less than 15 minutes, Dr. H appeared and we breathed a sigh of relief. He was finished and Lincoln had been moved to recovery. In another 15 minutes we were back to see him and helped him come out of his anesthesia. He was crabby and out of it and really really mad. As long as I held him while standing, he was happy. Within about 45 minutes, we dressed him and had our discharge paperwork in hand. Happy to have that behind us, we headed home to spend the day snuggling! Here's hoping these tubes do the trick and we can avoid more infections, keep fluid out of his ears, and start talking more! (on that note, he spent the entire afternoon saying "mama, mama, mama"!!).
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