Natalie's tube surgery

Natalie's tube surgery went way better than expected! The doctors and nurses at Newton Wellesley were so good and very pediatric oriented. I'm sure they've dealt with fussy kids before, but I seriously think mine is the fussiest when it comes to doctors. When we got there, we immediately went back to pre-op where she was weighed and measured. She did great during this. Normally at the regular pediatrician visits, she cries and screams, even during this part. But she got to stand on a real scale, and be measured against a wall, which is different than at the pediatrician. Plus, I got to do these things with her, rather than have the nurse do it. She just observed and that didn't bother Natalie. The child life specialist also came back with toys and stickers, which Natalie loves. I was really concerned about her hating the gas mask and they were so clever with it... they rubbed strawberry Lip Smackers on the inside so she would take a deep breath. Plus, they let her cover it with stickers, which she thought was fun. She didn't want to take the strawberry flavored Tylenol, but they said that wasn't a problem... they just put a Tylenol suppository in her while she was under! Genius! Todd went back with her and she didn't cry at all until they put the mask on her (which we expected) but Todd said within 15 seconds she was already drowsy. He said she didn't even thrash around (like she normally would). Within 30 seconds, she was out. This is a picture of Todd in his awesome spacesuit. He had to wear it to go into the surgery room. The whole thing took about 10 minutes (not even enough time for us to finish a discussion about Nicole Richie and who she is baby mama to - Todd had never heard of him). We went back to recovery and she was sleeping (for about 20-30 more minutes). When she woke up, she was a bit groggy and cried a bit that her right ear hurt. She also said her tummy hurt, but that was probably because she hadn't eaten breakfast and it was already around 10 or so. They brought her some crackers and graham crackers and water. She would periodically cry a bit, but it wasn't bad at all. We asked the nurse if it would be okay to go to Panera and get her a bagel, and she said that would be fine. When we asked Natalie if she wanted to go to Panera, she perked right up! By the time we got out to the car, she was almost back to normal. She ate a lot of her bagel and we even went to Target after breakfast.

They gave us antibiotic drops to give her twice a day for 10 days, and that hasn't been really easy, but we've bribed her with an M&M each time, and even though she cries when we give her the drops, it's pretty short lived. We let her watch Dora or an Elmo DVD. It usually stops the tears. Thankfully, Friday is the last day of those. Maureen (her daycare provider) has been kind enough to give her one dose right before her nap, so at least for the rest of the week, we only need to give her one dose ourselves!