Post-Surgery

Sweet Pea had her surgery to put her tubes in her ears this morning.  It went really well overall, minimal crying for the most part.  The surgery itself only took about 20-30 minutes, which was a relief, but all the prep time and waiting was exhausting.  I've been up since 3:30 this morning when Sweet Pea decided she was hungry and was very mad that we could not give her anything.  I finally soothed her back to sleep with a pacifier (which she normally wants nothing to do with), but she stayed restless until we were driving in the car where she really fell asleep again.  She hated it when the nurse took her vital signs and cried for quite a while after that.  When they called us back to the recovery room after her surgery, before we could even get in the room we could hear her just screaming away.  They finally let us give her some sugar water which placated her for a few minutes, then they eventually just gave in and let us give her a little formula even though they don't like to do that in recovery.  She finally calmed down and gave us a smile then.  Since we got home, she's mostly been sleeping and was thrilled when I finally let her drink a whole bottle.

I really started to feel more like a parent in going through this.  We were the ones she was looking to for comfort.  We are the ones who know what she likes and doesn't like (although we're definitely still learning on that front).  When we were sitting in the waiting room while she was in surgery, Shannon turned to me and said, "That felt really weird just handing her over to someone else and just walking away."  She's starting to feel like part of us.  Equally amazing and scary at the same time.  I can't wait to see what kind of effect the surgery has on her hearing, to see her grow and change knowing she's safely surrounded by our love and protection.