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8 :: July
M has been watching a lot of TV during her recovery and one of the episodes of Curious George we recorded has him taking some photos. So, she wanted to use my camera and take some photos too. She’s not half bad.
Posted in Miss M.
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Days Two – Four Post Surgery
Day Two (4th of July) – Thursday:
Day two post surgery was pretty uneventful and I already forget it because day three really sucked. After bath we went outside and R set off a few small fireworks. We told her it was America’s birthday and that really confused her. Our neighbor had a pretty big fireworks display and party, but luckily both girls slept through it all.
Day Three – Friday:
She started refusing her medications during the night between the second and third day. They call it day three post-op. So the surgery was Tuesday morning, and Friday really bit. At 2am on Thursday night R and I were fighting about the best way to get her to take the medicine. I was offering money and he was telling it how it was – you MUST DO THIS. Friday morning we had an eye appointment for S that both Ryan and I went to. My mom and dad stayed home with M. She seemed just ok in the morning, worse than before but not so bad that I cancelled that appointment or a conference I had with her teacher at 11am. When we called on our way home from the doctor mentioned we might bring her a muffin or something my dad said she really needed a special surprise or something. I got her a cupcake. She picked at it and then pretty much went to bed for the rest of the day. She was up and upset two times or so then went back into her room to go to sleep on the queen air mattress on her own. At this point she had not pooped since Wednesday because the medicine and the anesthesia can both cause constipation. She still wasn’t complaining of any specific pain. I decided to call the ENT and they said day three is one of the hardest days (and then day 6 or 7 when the scabs fall off). So, we powered through. She ended up getting up about 9pm or so. Since she was drenched in sweat several times that day and because a shower always makes me feel better when I’m sick – I got her to take a shower with me. Once we were all clean, I went back to bed with her on the air mattress in her room. We continued to wake her up to give her the medicine last night, as the ENT confirmed we should. She struggled badly again at 2:30am and ended up with a pillow and hair full of medicine and the maple syrup we cut it with. (She figured out she can spit it out – awesome). The Tylenol and Motrin taste fine, but she hates the prescription pain medication. We’re still alternating the Tylenol and Motrin, but decided yesterday and today to just do the prescription with the narcotic at night. She just seemed so out of it and exhausted yesterday evening.
Day Four – Saturday:
We woke up at 7am – wahoo! R is on S duty in the morning, since I’m in M’s bedroom with the door shut and A/C on. I don’t know if she really slept that late or if that’s when one of her poor tired parents finally heard her crying (me). But, she survived the morning even if she cried for an hour, so that’s good. But I think tonight I’ll leave the door open, even if the cool air will escape ;)
Today was better than yesterday. She finally pooped, but did complain that her stomach hurt a few times today. She didn’t eat as much as she has been and she won’t open her mouth very wide for food. She doesn’t want to stick her tongue out either. I can tell it really needs to be brushed, but oh well. She said she can’t because there is something in her throat. Also today she complained for the first time about her throat and ears hurting. She took her medicine like a champ today and got a tic-tac and lots of high fives after each time. She certainly had some hard times today too and was totally ready for a nap, asking to go lay down at lunchtime. She woke up in a fit from her nap – as she’s been doing the lsat few days, wanting us, crying and screaming, but not wanting to be touched or held. Eventually she settles down and were able to comfort her. It’s hard to watch, but she does this sometimes even when she’s not ill, so it’s not unheard of. We gave her plain Tylenol instead of the narcotic today, alternating with the Motrin. I think that’s why she was ok with the medicine, it wasn’t the bad tasting kind. We also set the timer for 20-30 minutes and made her take a drink each time it went off. At 9pm we’ll go wake her for the prescription but I don’t think we’ll wake her for pain meds tonight and see how she does. I’m going to keep sleeping with her until she’s off the meds during the night for a few nights. I can see now why people let their kids sleep in their bed. It’s so nice snuggling up next to her and falling asleep. What a sweetheart she is. The recovery is tough, but not as bad as I thought it would be, and she’s totally stopped snoring and mouth breathing. I am so proud of her – she’s being so brave and cooperative!
Posted in Miss M., Uncategorized
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Tonsillectomy and Adenoidectomy
Surgery Day:
Our almost 3 year old had a tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy two days ago. She was not allowed to eat or drink anything after midnight. She didn’t eat much dinner, but I gave her a HUGE bowl of ice cream for dessert. We didn’t tell her really where we were going or what we were doing, but (as the hospital advised) we only mentioned something the night before. At dinner and then again at bedtime we told her that we’d be waking her up early and that we’d be leaving right away. There wouldn’t even be enough time to take off her diaper and put underwear on. (She’s potty trained during the day, but we figured we’d keep her in diapers through surgery and recovery, especially since she’d have an IV of fluids for 24 hours). Sometimes she has trouble waking up, so we wanted to prep her ahead of time as to what would happen when we woke her up. She was a champ and let us get her into the car without any problems. We made sure to eat something before she got up. She never mentioned breakfast or being hungry all morning.
We reported at 6:30am and checked in at the surgical office where she got a hospital bracelet (and so did her monkeys!). We were then taken to a big room with several curtained off areas for each kid. There we changed her into little kid scrubs – so cute! There were quite a few children there and tons of nurses, doctors, anesthesiologists, etc. This is basically the holding area before they are taken into the ORs. Several people came to speak to us here and we were there probably about an hour? We had a nurse, an anesthesiologist, a child life specialist, a surgical nurse, our doctor, another anesthesiologist. The child life specialist showed M the mask and let her try it on and sniff it (there was something fruity smelling rubbed on the inside). M was a champ and just went along with what everyone said. One nurse got her a car and she played around in the car for quite some time. There are people walking all over the place, but they really don’t mind the kids roaming around and playing with the cars. They brought a gown and hat out for whichever parent would accompany her to the OR. We let her choose. We asked her, which one of us would you like to go with you to put you to sleep for your nap? She chose me.
She was probably the youngest kid in the holding area except one little girl that looked to be about 12-18 months old who was there with just her mom. I saw them leave to back to the OR and then saw her mom coming back without her with tears in her eyes. That’s when it really started to hit me. When it was our turn one of the anesthesiologists brought an iPad with Tinkerbell and we all walked back to the OR. M rode in her car, but then go out and walked with them. She didn’t old my hand and probably would have followed them right in there without me – what a brave girl. They had her sit on the side of the bed and I sat on a stool facing her. They put the iPad right next to her and she watched that while they put the mask on her face (she was sitting up) and they said she should sniff the fairy dust. She took a few breaths. They had warned me she might have some muscle spasms and I think they thought she would at this point. I think she had one little one, then looked kind of like she might vomit and then she snored, so I knew she was out. I told her I loved her a bunch and then the child life specialist walked me back to Ryan.
Since I’m still nursing S, I had to be sure I brought my pump to the hospital. I decided to pump just after M went under so that I could be ready and available for her for several hours after the surgery. We were told the surgery would be about 50 minutes, but now that I am thinking about it, I wonder if I heard them wrong – maybe they said 15?! By the time I pumped and ate half a sandwich the surgeon was standing in the waiting room calling our name. On a side note, they recommended we pack food to eat in the waiting room during the surgery, as we couldn’t eat much before and would be with her in recovery for a while afterwards. So, their was the doctor, standing there, before I even really had a chance to worry. I thought – oh no – they got in there and either couldn’t do the surgery, or something went really really wrong. And of course then he says, can you come with me to this little private room? Come on!!! Just give me a thumbs up or something! But as soon as we get in the room he says everything went great, he just can’t say anything in the waiting room because of HIPPA. He tells us everything went very well and sure enough her adenoids were huge too. He tells us they are getting her setup in recovery and as soon as she’s situated they will come get us.
We’d been prepared that she might wake up very upset. I was really prepared for the worst. Sometimes at home she wakes up really upset and spends what feels like 20 minutes crying in her room. She’ll refuse to let anyone touch her. I thought this might be like that. When they took us back she was asleep on her stomach. I think she must have heard us because she opened her eyes and started crying a little bit. After a little maneuvering around the IV we were able to get her out of the bed and onto my lap. She stayed there until the room was ready for us – half hour to an hour maybe? At one point she woke up some more and started crying again so they gave her a little morphine. She was upset, but not flailing or crying hard like I thought she might be. She snuggled up to me and fell back asleep. Then they got me into a wheel chair with her still on my lap and got us into our room. Then I got into bed with her on my stomach and we stayed like that for a while.
They warned us that her breath would be stinky from the anesthesia and it sure was! I had also heard that she might have a red face from some of the medication she got during surgery. My parents came to visit about 11 am or so and she woke up red, hot and upset. I guess a fever up to 101 is also ok and not uncommon. I called the nurse in but her temperature was fine. They said she could also get hot flashes. I think she had a few of those during the morning as she was due for more medication and got uncomfortable. She was upset, but never as bad as I thought it might be and she never complained of her throat hurting. She got gradually better as the day went on. They alternate between a prescription at has Tylenol and a narcotic (hydrocodone) and Motrin. Each can be taken every six hours and can be taken together. So basically she’s getting some medicine every 3 hours. You would think the narcotic would make her sleepy and groggy, but it really amped her up and made her silly and talkative. We spent the afternoon walking around the surgery recovery floor, in the playroom, hanging in her room and reading books. We did not push for a nap and she did not fall asleep. She did a great job eating and drinking. The hospital had a slushy machine right on the floor and she ate those up! She was a little bit interested in the IV, but overall didn’t pay it much attention. They had it taped down of course and then wrapped up in a washcloth. They told her it was her special straw giving her a drink. She started saying, this is my medicine for my boo-boos. When you asked her where her boo-boos were she’d point to her scrapped knees. If it wasn’t for her voice being high and scratchy you’d probably never realize that her throat had been operated on.
We decided that Ryan would spend the night with M and I would go home to take care of S. I left the hospital around 8pm as they were settling into bed together. He ended up staying in her bed until she fell asleep and then he slept on the big couch in the room which doubles nicely as a bed. Her bad was a normal size hospital bed, but there were bumpers that we added to it at night. S was asleep when I got home and slept all night until 5am (thank you!). I was back to the hospital by 7am. We had breakfast and hung out a little bit before heading home at about 9:30am.
Recovery Day 1:
Our first day and night home went really well. She continued to eat and drink just fine (maybe even better than before!?). She painted at her easel outside and really wanted to go on her slide, but we wouldn’t let her. After naptime she had a tough time waking up and she ended up spending the rest of the afternoon watching Steve Songs and relaxing on the couch. I slept in her room last night and woke up in time to get her her medicine (3 times) before she woke up in pain. She didn’t even snore! She seems great so far today, relaxing on the couch, painting and drawing with crayons. So far so good!
We’re told the different voice could last 3-4 weeks. One of the “side effects” was that her voice could stay like this forever. Guess we’ll see. Here’s a video.
And here she is staying hydrated today!
Edit: Here are links to the additional blog posts about this experience:
Days Two – Four Post Surgery
Post Surgery
Posted in Miss M.
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29 :: June
It’s only Saturday night and we’ve had such a great weekend. Ryan’s brothers, dad, sister in law and two nieces came to visit. We hung out at their hotel on Thursday night after they arrived, I played hooky on Friday so we could go to the science museum, we had an adults only amazing dinner out on Friday night, and we hung with them at our house all day today. It’s always so cool to see all the girls play and it gets even cooler the older they get. The girls did absolutely amazing together.
We’re sad to see them go but glad we’ll have tomorrow to get ourselves together before M’s surgery on Tuesday. Everyone went to bed late on Thursday night, M skipped a nap Friday and we didn’t even try for a nap today – so hopefully we can do some catching up on sleep before Tuesday. I’m started to get a little nervous. I feel so sad when she’s hurt or sad and I know it’s going to be tough to see her in pain. Just today she fell and scraped up her knees and it just made me feel really nervous for how sad and confused she’s going to be Tuesday when she wakes up. I’m just really glad we’re able to have my parents at the house with S so R and I can really focus on M at the hospital.
On another note, a friend of my cousins (but my friend too!) leads a great private group on Facebook where moms ask questions to other moms. It seems to be such a great group of like minded moms (or at least the ones that speak up are like minded). For instance, one posted this below and such great comments followed!
I’m looking for the collective wisdom of this group. We’ve had so many rough days (weeks? I can’t even remember at this point) lately with 3 year old behavior. I wanted to ask what mottos/mantras/techniques you all use to get through tough days and keep optimistic that things WILL get better and that you won’t lose your cool yet again. If you tell me that I should lay down in the middle of the grocery store and do deep breathing exercises while my child melts down I will do it because I will try ANYTHING at this point! ;)
And here are some of the responses:
I try to remember what my mom always says. When they are acting their worse is when they need you the most!
My friends and I have joked about hanging up signs “This is age appropriate!” to remind us to not take our kids’ behaviors personally. We also use the phrases “good choice” and “bad choice” or “easy way” and “hard way” – “Let’s do this the easy way.” “I know you can make the good choice.” etc.
We try to do little pep talks before we go places about what they can expect (grocery shopping so we can food to eat at home, you like cereal right? well we need to get more, etc…) and what I expect from them (patience, quiet voices, staying close, etc). Now this doesn’t always work but I feel it helps set expectations so when things go wrong they understand why they are “in trouble”, etc. As far as at home I try to reason with them and then if it is uncontrollable I just walk away or send them to their room until they can come back and talk to me calmly.
My boss is an executive coach and I have embraced her mantra “Allow, Accept, Release” and find it perfect for Toddlers. I allow him to be who he is (a small child, still learning so much about the world), accept that as long as he is not hurting himself or others he should be allowed to explore and perhaps sometimes that means exploring his feelings though he doesn’t know what they are or how to control them, and release my own anxieties, frustrations, etc.
Posted in Family, Miss M., Miss S., Motherhood
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28 :: June
We went to an absolutely lovely wedding last weekend of a co-worker from R’s work. R played in the orchestra with a bunch of her students from their school. So neat to have that much music at your ceremony. The ceremony was beautiful and the reception was super fun (and our first night out in over 5 months together!). We had a prime view of the dance floor and it was super fun to watch the families dance it up. We had to take off after dinner to relieve our babysitters but we got one slow dance in before we left. The ceremony had a reading, “On Love” from I Corinthians 13 (you know the typical, love is . . . poem) but this time it really struck me and I really listened. There are several versions, but the message is the same. What a nice refresher and what a way to realize I’ve not been saving my best for my husband lately . . .
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.
I think we take things out on our spouses because we know, of all people, they will take it. But it’s still not fair to treat them as any less than you’d want them to treat you. We’re partners in this and even if one partner has to lean on the other more at some points, we’re always there for each other.
Posted in Life
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Last Day of Daycare
Today was M’s last day of daycare. I cannot believe how fast she’s growing up. It’s so amazing having conversations with this little girl. I love our rides home in the car, just me and her. I love the way she tried to negotiate with me on things and her rationale for why she should be able to do something she cannot. She really cracks me up sometimes! Tomorrow and this weekend we’ll hang with her cousins and R’s side of the family. Tuesday is her surgery and then she’ll have all summer with Grandma and S. She’ll start at her new school in early September. She was super excited to take cupcakes to her friends on her last day of school.
On a side note, no CSA photo this week as we’re too nuts tonight to have time. And no photo next week because someone else is picking up and distributing to help us out because of M’s surgery (Thanks Molly!).
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5 Months Old
S is 5 months old! I’m tempted to say we haven’t been to the doctor is a while, so we don’t know her weight. That, of course, means we’ll be needing to make a trip there soon. The universe will hear that and I’ll have two sick kids by week’s end. We’re hoping to keep sickness away as M’s surgery is a week from today. Anyway, back to S. She’s getting very physical. When you set her down on the mat or in her crib (without the sleep sack) she often turns right over onto her stomach from her back. I have a feeling she’ll be moving sooner than the other one! We haven’t started solid food with her yet for the same reason we hadn’t with M at this point – we just haven’t gotten around to it. Right now we’re focusing on M’s surgery and then we’ll move on to the solid food for S when we feel like we really have the energy to focus on it. She sleeps through the night pretty much every night. She gets a bath with M, then I put her to bed and someone else (my mom or R) puts M to bed. S nurses and then falls asleep pretty quickly after. She’ll sometimes fuss a little when I put her down or shortly there after and I’ll feed her some more. Sometimes she’s up at 4:30am and I bring her into our bed, nurse her and she goes back to sleep. Sometimes she sleeps until I’m out of the shower at 5:30am. She’s pretty much always happy and full of smiles in the mornings. She spits up a lot, but not the projectile spit ups that M did. My mom read somewhere that the height of spitting up is around 4 months, so hopefully we’re on the tail end of that. She doesn’t mind it, but it’s awfully messy and stinky. As M did, she has total head control but isn’t sitting up unaided yet. She’s still a really chill baby. She pretty much only loses it when she’s really tired – which is daily – but at least it’s pretty easy to tell why she’s upset and not too difficult to get her calmed down and to sleep. She loves watching everyone and everything going on around her. She hasn’t started laughing yet :)
Here’s the post from when M turned 5 months old.
M wanted me to take a photo of her with the 5 as well:
Posted in Miss S.
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20 Questions with Tonsils
I read somewhere that kids’ voices might change after they get their tonsils and adenoids removed. I had also seen on Pinterest a very cute idea about asking kids the same questions every year on their birthday starting at three years old. So, I decided to do this pre and post surgery for M. I took a video and also wrote the questions and answers down here:
1. What is your favorite color: Blue2. What is your favorite toy: Dog (not sure if she means a stuffed dog or Izzie)
3. What is your favorite fruit: Blueberries, watermelon, strawberries, frozen blueberries, frozen strawberries, frozen watermelon
4. What is your favorite thing to watch on TV: Steve Songs and Goodnight Gorilla.
5. What is your favorite movie: n/a
6. What is your favorite thing to wear: Snail shirt and pink/purple skirt (what she was wearing when I asked her)
7. What is your favorite animal: Monkey
8. What is your favorite song: Twinkle Twinkle
9. What is your favorite book: When Mama Comes Home Tonight (she said this because she saw me take this book to work to pass along to someone else)
10. Who is your best friend: Abigail (someone from her school)
11. What is your favorite snack: Graham Crackers
12. What is your favorite drink: Blueberries, then milk, water, orange juice
13. What is your favorite breakfast: Chicken (what she was eating then), Muffins
14. What is your favorite lunch: Spaghetti (not true!), Applesauce
15. What is your favorite dinner: yogurt
16. What is your favorite game: New sandbox
17. What is your favorite thing to do outside: Play in the sandbox at school and at home
18. What is your favorite holiday: Pajama day at school
19. What is your favorite thing to sleep with at night: Pants, animals
20. What do you want to be when you grow up: A big girl
Posted in Miss M.
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The True Story of What Was 
