Boober's new ears

2 weeks ago, Boober went to the hospital for his first surgery. He had myringotomy tubes inserted in his ears. In the days leading up to Boober's surgery I was going a little out of my mind with nervous energy. I started a million new projects. It will probably take me months to finish them all. And then it was 24 hours to the surgery, and I felt like it was all out of my hands anyway. I did as much prep as I could - packed the diaper bag with lots of diapers, spare outfits for everyone, snacks. Laid out all the coffee thermoses, set the coffee maker to do it's thing automatically at something like 5:20am . . . and then we went to bed.

My worry was that Boober (who was not supposed to eat or drink anything after midnight) would wake and demand to nurse at 2am. He didn't. In fact, we couldn't have planned it better if we had tried -- Boober woke at 5:30am, just in time to join us for our exit. With coffee, snacks, and a full diaper bag in tow, we made our way to the hospital, where we did a whole lot of waiting.




We waited to check in (we were 30 minutes early)

We waited for our call to the OR.

We waited for anesthesia to come get our baby (this was probably the worst part for me).

We waited while they did the surgery.

I comforted Boober in recovery while he came out of the anesthesia - he was clearly not impressed. Until we got the go-ahead to nurse. Then he was quite happy again.

We waited to go back to pediatrics.

We waited for the release approval and paperwork.

Then we went home.



There really wasn't much to it. Boober was only miserable when they were checking his stats, and when he was coming out of his anesthesia. Aside of those events, he was having a great time running around the halls of the hospital, playing with new toys, and exploring.

His recovery was just as uneventful. He's done really well all around. And through this surgery, we've come to understand that Boober really did have limited hearing. He's responding to things in a way he just didn't before. He's even got some new sounds, and words. He sings songs, and does actions. Seriously -- Itsy Bitsy Spider, Skinamarink, ADORABLE. I've definitely seen a benefit. I can even finally share a cute Boober interaction story with you now:

Boober is flipping through a book and sees a picture of a chicken.
Me: Hey Boober, what does a chicken say?
Boober: Duck, duck!
Me: No, no, baby. Cluck, cluck.
Boober: (gives me a look of 'what is WRONG with you??') Yeah, duck duck.

later - Boober sees a picture of a dog.
Me: What does a puppy dog say?
Boober: Baa, baa!
Me: No, honey. Puppies say bark, bark.
Boober: (nodding, very solemn) baa! Baa!