Unphased

It’s really the best word to describe Nora when it comes to dealing with her ear tubes surgery.

Girlfriend was a ROCKSTAR.

Our surgery arrival time was scheduled for 7:45 a.m., so we got up early this morning in order to be ready to leave the house by 7:15. Thankfully, the timing was pretty perfect for us, as Nora usually wakes up around 7:00. Since she couldn’t eat or drink anything, it was nice to be able to just grab her out of bed, change her diaper, and go. If we had to hang around the house for a while, things would’ve gotten ugly without her milk and waffle (or oatmeal).

But Nora rolled with the punches from the get-go, riding silently the entire way to the surgery center, despite us derailing her usual morning routine. Shortly after arrival at the center, we were called back for preparation–weighing Nora, confirming her medical history, introductions with the anesthesiologist, and a greeting from her ENT. We kept Nora occupied with a movie on the iPad, and before we knew it, it was time for them to take her to the operating room. They whisked her away, which was awful (she screamed), but it was quick.

Fifteen minutes occupying ourselves in the waiting room, and the ENT came out to tell us that it was over and that she had done really well. He said that they had suctioned a lot of fluid from her not-even-infected-at-the-moment ears, which really made me feel like we had made the right decision. A couple more minutes and a nurse was leading us back to see our little girl.

When we got to her, she was crying, and clearly still out of it, but she reached for me and calmed down once she was in my arms. Surprisingly, she was not terribly lethargic–she had no interest in continuing to sleep on me or anything. So, again, we took out the iPad to help pass the time we had to wait to be discharged.

Twenty minutes later and we were told we could take her home. All in all, we were in and out in an hour and a half. Not too shabby.

By the time we got home, Nora was back to her normal self already. I was expecting a clingy, tired, extra snuggly baby to lie around with all day (I was actually looking forward to it), but instead we found ourselves chasing after Little Miss Busy all day long (exhausting, ha). She even introduced us to some new dance moves:

Nora went down at her normal nap time and slept her normal length of time. The only time I really noticed a difference was tonight, when I put her down to bed. She was so exhausted that she fell asleep on me (which is not the norm). I might’ve held her a lot longer than usual. You know, to get that snuggle time.

I’m just so happy to have this behind us. The lead-up to it has been long, and stressful. Earlier this week, we were in the ENT’s office on both Tuesday and Wednesday–once for a hearing test (they said there was no permanent hearing loss) and then for the pre-op appointment. And obviously, before that, there were many ear infections and trips to the pediatrician.

Here’s hoping that this procedure helps Nora and turns out to be a wonderful solution for her.

And maybe now I can finally stop worrying.