Can you hear me now?

On Wednesday, December 12th Bugbaboo had tubes put into his ears. After 5 rounds of antibiotics over 5 months for ear infections, we and his doctors decided that it would be a good move. I've told you before about Dr. Fantastic. Well she just had a baby! So in her absence we've been seeing her partner, let's call her Dr. Wonderful. And she is just that. She's been so concerned about him that she even called us on Thanksgiving Day (the day after a particularly bad infection) to see how he was doing. She suggested we go see a pediatric ENT specialist asap, so that's what we did. We went to the Children's branch in Parker and met Dr. Chan, and all of his nice nurses were so kind and helpful.

And let me tell you what a little trooper this kid is. He's never minded all of the poking and prodding that goes with all of the ear checks he's had. He just leans against our chests and lets the doctors do whatever they need to. Last week he sat on Daddy's lap in the sound booth to check his hearing, and he was so attentive to what was going on and sat so still and quietly. He was just amazing. They did say that his hearing in the normal ranges was great considering how full of fluid his ears were, and that his eardrums weren't moving at all. But he did miss a few things in the outer edges, so we're hoping (and sure) that will all come back now with the fluid drained away.

Wednesday morning we checked in to Children's Hospital, got him all changed into his gown and then had visits from a series of nurses and doctors and the anesthesiologist all preparing us for what would happen. He wasn't afraid of anyone, charmed the nurse who gave him is little physical, checked out everything in the room, and then took a 45 minute nap in Mama's arms while we waited for our turn. When the anesthesiologist came to take him into surgery, he happily went with her, began playing with all the cool things hanging around her neck (stethoscope, goggles, name badge, etc) and away they went. He never even looked back, which I'm thankful for because I think I would have lost it, seeing someone else carry my baby away to surgery.

Less than 15 minutes later we were seated in the waiting room and out comes the doctor, "Everything went well...drained copious amounts of thick fluid...going to be a different baby!". Yippee!!! Although he was an amazing baby to begin with, so I hope the "different" part only refers to him feeling good all the time! Less than 5 minutes later we were back in recovery with him as he fussed off the affects of the anesthesia. After nursing and getting some Motrin, he was crawling and talking and playing up a storm within 30 minutes and they sent us home with some ear drops. We had a fantastic afternoon with him, he ate, slept and played like nothing happened. We still have to do the ear drops a few more days, and we have 2 more days left on his oral antibiotic from this last infection. But then hopefully we don't see a milky fruity bubble-gummy flavored goop for a long long time again.

So thank you everyone for your thoughts and prayers! We felt so good about this decision and we know it's because of the support we had from the doctors and from all of our family and friends.

Here is a picture of Bugaboo in all of his hospital finery. It was taken with my camera phone so I apologize for the fuzziness, but isn't he just too cute?