Surgery Day

Sydney's adenoidectomy and tube surgery went very well. We arrived at the hospital at 9am & checked in. Both sets of grandparents came to comfort a nervous mommy & daddy and kept Sydney's mind off her empty tummy. She had her last bottle the night before at bedtime & the poor little thing was starving. When she would start to fuss the grandparents took turns playing with her, rocking her and walking her around the waiting room. I can't even tell you how much having them there meant to us.

While the grandparents sat in the waiting room, Stephen and I took Sydney back to get prepped from surgery. They gave her a little gown and hooked her up the a bunch of monitors. It broke my heart to see her in her little gown. She was so good and patient while the doctors and nurses came to talk to us. The anesthesiologist came and gave me a liquid sedative to give her orally through a syringe. They had us support her head in case she started to get sleepy. It didn't seem to have any affect her. She crawled all over the hospital bed and got tangled in the wires. I guess it was just meant to relax her so they could put in her IVs. Her Dr. came to talk to us & then the anesthesiologist came to go over the risks of anesthesia. When he told us the worst case scenario would be coma or death it felt like a knife was stabbed into my heart. I wanted to grab her and run away. I had to try my best to keep it together. They came and told us it was time for surgery. We gave her kisses and hugs and handed her over to the nurse. It was so hard to leave her! I cried and Stephen and I hugged. We headed out to the waiting room and waited...and waited. It felt like hours, but I think it was only an hour before the Dr. came out (smiling) to talk to us. She said everything went well and that we had made a good decision to follow through with the procedure. She said Sydney may have to stay the night because she had some sort of "episode" during surgery while the breathing tube was in her throat. She wanted to be extra cautious and see how she was doing after the anesthesia wore off.

After a little bit we got to go back and wait for her to wake up. She didn't wake up happy. She seemed to be in pain and cried. I felt so bad for the other people in the recovery room waking up out of surgery to a screaming baby. I was getting annoyed by the nurses and their lack of knowledge with dealing with a baby waking up from anesthesia. One of the nurses asked me if she was a "crier". She was in pain - of course she was going to cry! They ended up giving her morphine which only knocked her out again and when she woke up she was grumpy and groggier then before. Finally they moved us into another area where there were other babies and children. They were stocked with diapers, pedialite and the nurses seemed to be a little more comfortable with babies. Sydney had a little apple juice and some Tylenol and when the anesthesiologist gave us the okay we were able to get her dressed and leave. She was still grumpy but when we got out to the waiting room to see the grandparents her face lit up. She looked at each on of them in the eye and gave the biggest happy grin. It was such a sweet moment to see all that love.

She did well on the drive home and was okay until bedtime. She cried and nothing we did helped. Finally I brought her into bed with me and just held her until she fell asleep. She woke several times for medicine and a bottle. The next night was more of the same. Last night she slept better and I'm hoping she'll be back on schedule this week. The lack of sleep is wearing on me. Other then her sleep schedule regressing to her newborn days she is doing well. She seems happy and she has an huge appetite. She hasn't been able to wear her hearing aids yet but I'm going to try to put them in soon so she won't get too used to going without them. She doesn't seem to be hearing any better then before but of course it's hard for me to tell since I know she's hearing - but I just don't know how clear things are for her. We'll have her hearing tested again soon. Stephen & I were sure she said the word "kiss" the other day. She understands when I say "kiss kiss" and loves kissing her stuffed animals and the cat but to actually hear her say what sounded like "kish" was amazing. It would be "so Sydney" for her first work to be "kiss". She is so lovable and so affectionate. She was born with the gift of a golden heart. My baby is so very "kishable"! :)