ear tube baby

Ethan went to Primarys today to get his ear tubes. We showed up to the hospital at 6am; he was the first appointment of the day for our doctor because he was the youngest. Brett and I went to a pre-surgery class last week so that we would know what was going on and what to expect. That helped us not freak out as much, I think. But I still freaked out (on the inside) while I was there and so did Brett.

We were told to expect to be there for 6 hours or so, but we left the hospital at 9am. The surgery only took about 15 minutes and everything went really well. They told us that Ethan would wake up irritable and be cranky for the rest of the day, and that wasn't true either. He cried and squirmed for about a half hour after he woke up from the surgery, but after that he was his normal smiling, talking, social self. The nurse said he would probably want to nurse often today, mainly for comfort, but he ate like usual. And he took his normal naps as well. He seems to be doing really well.

I can smell the infection in his ears, though. And he didn't like having the antibiotic drops in his ears tonight. He cried a little when we put them in his ears. We'll see what tomorrow is like.

It's fun to see him listening now. I always thought he could hear, even though he didn't pass his hearing screenings. But now I see that he hears a lot more than he could before. He smiles when he hears us talking but can't see us; he's never done that before. He turns his head to face noises a lot more now. He also has been startling more. We took him to The Costco this afternoon and he fell asleep, but would keep waking up when someone banged a cart or yelled. He wouldn't have woken up like that before. It's all very fun. The best part is his listening face. I tried to get a picture of it on my phone, but he gets distracted by the camera and changes his expression. Tomorrow, I'll try to sneak up and get a good one. It's a fun facial expression, because I can really see him processing and thinking about what's going on around him. Sweet little boy.

We go in to see our ENT again in about 5 weeks. Then we will do another hearing test and a checkup on the tubes. I'm sure he'll pass the screenings now.