Ear Tubes and Adenoidectomy

In the past four months, Olivia has had 8 ear infections. Poor little girl would get sick .. get better for a day, get an ear infection, go on an antibiotic which hurt her stomach, do that for 10 days, get sick and start the cycle again.

There was a ton of fluid in her ears, and we noticed she had trouble locating sounds. We could ask her to come find us, and she'd try really hard but look from room to room, with no idea where the sound was coming from. 

And don't forget her ruptured ear drum back at Christmas.

I really didn't want her to have ear tubes. A ped told us on ear infection 2, "she might end up with tubes." I thought that was crazy .. just 2 ear infections. I didn't want my baby to go through surgery.

On infection 4, another ped brought it up "if you get to that point, you'll be so ready for her to have them." 

Well .. ear infection 8, which needed a stronger antibiotic than the strong one that really hurt her stomach .. that was the last straw. We were ready for them. Our ENT was great and said if she ruptured her ear drum multiple times, it could lead to hearing loss - which we don't want.

We really didn't want her adenoids out either - since tubes isn't that big of a deal, but adenoids is like having your tonsils removed. We noticed Olivia was a mouth breather but thought that was developmental.  :)  He said her adenoids were very large and would cause her to need repeat tubes. Also, she'd be able to breathe better.

The day before surgery, we took Olivia for her last good meal. And went all out with junk food. Mac and cheese, fries (which she dipped in the mac and cheese), apples and a "sushi" made out of a rice krispie with a swedish fish. Thanks Cowfish!

Olivia couldn't have anything to eat or drink the morning of, which was so sad. She was so hungry.

Sweet thing dancing around in her little gown.

We had a solid hour to kill - so I blew up a glove for her. It bought us at least 5 minutes. 

They gave her a baby cocktail. Of course she said "mo mo?" (more). Then she started cracking up. Everything was hysterical. They took her back and said they'd update us, but she'd be about 30 minutes.

I almost ran out of Facebook and Instagram to distract me.

Surgery went really well (and since this is three weeks later, her post op did too). But the worst is going back there. She was awake but spinning and couldn't figure out what was done or where she was or why she was out of it. She cried and cried. We had a drink but she couldn't get the straw in her mouth and didn't want our help and kept getting so frustrated and swatting our hands away. She cried the whole way home. We put her down for a nap and she woke up doing well and hungry.

I had gotten her some ice cream for her throat and chick fil a nuggets since they are her favorite. She was dipping her nuggets in icecream. Maybe she's onto something?

After that, she didn't really eat much the next week. She lost a good big of weight and her toddler belly was gone. (3 weeks later she's gained it all back and then some!) She was also waking in the middle of the night - I'm sure with a sore throat. We could only give her Tylenol, which I know doesn't really help much with pain. 

About 10 days later she was back to her normal self. Every day was a little better than the last. She did run a fever for the first 4, which they told us to expect - and kept getting kicked out of daycare for it ... oops. 

After she woke from her nap, we were playing outside, and I noticed a huge difference in the way she handled sounds. Instead of looking around for them, the second she heard the sound, she looked directly at it. It's amazing the difference it has made already.

In the past 3 weeks she's been healthy - which is longer than any time since her first birthday!! I am loving our happy, healthy, energetic baby girl - and love that she's not on any antibiotics!

We've got a few months of words to catch up on - since she hasn't heard clearly for awhile (all of that night time reading! haha) - so we are repeating everything multiple times. But I know she'll catch up.

I couldn't find much on experiences with the adenoidectomy online - so I thought I'd write ours up. Whew - that was long!

Catching Up

I went to a bachelorette party for one of my best friends last weekend in Pensacola, FL. I flew home Sunday evening and left at 5 am for Vegas for the week for work. 

Note: Never take a 3 am flight home from Vegas. On the way out there, the guy next to me was taking pictures of me and snapchatting them to his friends. I never thought I'd have begged to sit next to him, until I got the guy who was puking in the puke bag the entire flight. I'll spare you more details but it was a rough way to come home.

As fun as both trips were, though, I sure missed Olivia. She was reaching out her arms for me to hold her on the video chats - and crying so hard because I couldn't. I honestly thought she was laying there at night worried that mom was stuck in the phone. I have only left her for two nights one other time. It is so hard. I'd rather be with my baby forever.

But I have some catching up to do .. on work .. at our house .. in kisses for those sweet cheeks .. and on the blog.

Let's start with a bunch of pictures of my baby.

She got fruit snacks - happy as a clam.

Life motto: Play outside.

I turned my back for like 3 seconds. 3 seconds!

This big girl loves brushing her teeth and washing her hands. Anything to do with water. I love her sweet tippy toes.

Cake pop at Starbucks .. could a Saturday start any better?

Yep! Because this morning she got her own ice water too!

Miss accessories insisted on the hat.

Do you guys spend time playing in your car seat with your baby dolls, your shades on and Halloween PJs in April? ..yeah, we don't either.

I can't believe Monday is back so quickly. Why do the days seem to be flying by? I'm doing my best to simplify things so I can spend more time with that baby girl.

I'm going to an 18 month post after her dr appt so I have her stats, but can you believe I have an 18 month old?! Thats a real toddler. Not like a toddling baby. That's almost to the 'stop calling me baby, I big girl' age. Flying. 

She's so much fun. Arguably more fun than Vegas. Happy Monday, everyone.

Easter

First of all, thanks for all the sweet comments and emails on the last post. We had the most wonderful weekend! The weather was wonderful and we were outside all weekend. Olivia is feeling much better, and as of Tuesday started sleeping through the night again. She's been so sweet, and I'm glad to have my baby back.

Easter started earlier in the week with a sweet play date. Of course my child is the one hysterically in tears. It was two days after her surgery and all she wanted was for me to hold her. She wasn't happy about sitting on the bench with her friends for the photo op. I will say, for 8 kids under 20 months, looking in the right direction is about the best we can ask for.

Dan was supposed to be out of town all weekend, but he drove all night Saturday night to surprise us on Easter morning. 

As a side story, Olivia loves cars. She likes to play in our cars and pretend to drive them. She calls them bubbles and we have no idea why. We'll be in a parking lot and she'll go "bubble. bubble. bubble. buh-ble." 

Dan pulls in the driveway after driving all night and Olivia just lights up. She has this huge smile and she starts running toward him. Dan gets out of the car.

"Olivia I missed you too!"
Olivia is laughing and running.
Dan squats down to hug her. 
Olivia runs right past him and climbs into the car.

Turns out she didn't want to see you. She was just excited that you brought her a new bubble.

The Easter basket was a huge hit until she opened the third egg and it, too, had Goldfish in it. She looked at me like, "A little variety would have been nice mom." Noted.

And then we had to get a ton of pictures of her in her little Easter Lilly from Aunt Sam and Uncle Jason. I need to find a million more reasons for her to wear this.

Hope you guys had a wonderful Easter! 

This Week

Wow - we have had quite a week.

On Saturday, Dan totaled his car with us in it. Everyone's fine. Some kids ran out in the middle of this six lane road - just completely sprinted into the middle of traffic. If we hadn't wrecked, they would have been killed. Thankfully everyone is okay. Olivia didn't even notice.

I know nothing about cars, but learned that transmission fluid is red. Well, we got out of the car, and it was just gushing this red fluid. I looked and Dan and said "I think it's dead." Took the insurance adjuster five days to come to the same conclusion.

It was hissing and steaming, so we stayed out of the car. Olivia was mad that I wouldn't let her play in traffic. And of course it was nap time.

His car was old, with over 200K miles on it. I just keep thinking that maybe there was something wrong with it, and this way we were forced to get rid of it, without something worse happening. 

Dan was bummed and my 'one car family' jokes were too soon. #whoops

On Monday, Olivia got ear tubes and an adenoidectomy. (I'll do a separate post on that). 

That morning, our dog clearly had stomach issues and went to the bathroom on the ONLY expensive carpet we own in the whole house. We left it to clean up later. 

After two days of letting Koda out throughout the middle of the night (remember the newborn days? yeah, me neither), and a few bottles of carpet cleaner later, Dan took her to the vet, and an antibiotic has cleared her right up. 

Olivia has done okay after her surgery. She really hasn't eaten a ton - but enough for us to not be worried. She's been up throughout the night each night, not napping, and she's been kicked out of daycare each day this week for just being unhappy and running a fever (they told us that would happen). She's getting better each day, but I think it'll be a full week recovery before she's back to normal. 

When she gets kicked out of daycare, I am so lucky to be able to get her, but my work still has to get done after she goes to bed. So it has made for long days. And not sleeping because of my two newborns, has made for long nights.

So much work. Not enough laptops.

A quick google search on adenoidectomies that finds, of course, the one case where twin boys both die after complications, puts everything in perspective. Olivia, Dan, Koda and myself might all be a little tired, but we're all alive and well, and nothing else in the world matters.

After sleeping in today, working from home, and a 4 hour nap for Olivia - we're all new people! Good Friday, indeed.