Do you hear what I hear?

After two months of an ear infection that just wouldn't quit, after six rounds of antibiotics, after 12 doctor's visits, one trip to the ER and one trip to urgent care, we got Toph ear tubes Thursday.

There he is in the pre-op part of the hospital in his baby gown. See that smile? The child had every right to be a complete grumpy Gus. First of all, he had to fast for eight hours prior to the procedure. I knew this was going to be a problem in and of itself because for the past two months, his ear pain has woken him multiple times during the night. On a good night, he would wake up screaming twice, on a bad night, four to five times. The only thing that would calm him down was if he nursed. So, when the doctor said an eight hour fast, I knew we were in for the longest eight hours of our lives. Wednesday night he woke up twice, once was at 10:00 and since it was more than eight hours from the procedure he could nurse. The second time he woke up at 1:30am and Matt fielded that one. He screamed for an hour and then refused to go in his crib, so he got to sleep the rest of the night with daddy in the guest bed.

So, when we woke him up at 5am to go to the surgery center, we thought we were in for a rough time.

We were wrong.

He was a gem the entire time there. During pre-op, he smiled and giggled and cooperated.

We visited with the doctor and the anesthesiologist and then the nurse whisked him away from us.

Mama did get a little teary as they took him back; I mean, I don't care that the procedure takes ten minutes, it's still surgery.

After a half hour, our awesome ENT came back and gave us his report. Toph has scarring on both sides of his ear drums and that the last two months it's been like Toph has been hearing through a tunnel, but that no permanent damage had been done. He said everyone wanted to take Toph home with them. I smiled at the compliment and said I just couldn't do without him.

After 15 more minutes, we were called back to post-op to see him. He was still sleeping from the anesthesia but woke up after about five minutes. The nurses had warned us that he would be cranky and fussy and very disoriented. I guess my baby is an anomaly because he sat straight up and looked at everyone and...smiled. Not one fuss came from his mouth.

He lost his gown in the process.


He was very intrigued by the monitor on his big toe...

And proceeded to take it off!

We topped off the morning (we got to the center at 5:30am and were out by 8am) by a wheelchair ride out. I remember our last wheelchair ride quite well-this time around, I didn't feel like I had been in a wreck and he was jumping and smiling on my lap.

God is good; He took care of our babe and delivered us to the other side of this ear infection saga. We also learned not to underestimate our awesome baby!