Preston's ear surgery and early Christmas celebration

The ENT we had our consultation only does surgeries on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Even though the recovery is typically 24 hours, I decided to book the Thursday before Christmas. It was the last appointment he had for MONTHS, and it worked out perfectly because the last day of school was the day before his surgery! I was told that he would perform the procedure even if he had current ear infection at the time, and the only sickness that would cause a cancellation were fevers, and stomach viruses/vomiting. Well guess what starts going around at the school in which I work, AND his daycare? Yep...a stomach virus! It was pretty bad. During my lunch duty, and we had at least 2 kids a day get sick. I only do lunch duty for about 20 minutes! I know the nurse was sending kids home let and right the two weeks leading up to Christmas break. One day I picked Preston up, and out of the 8 kids in his class, 6 went home that day including the teacher. This was the Thursday before his scheduled surgery. As you can imagine, I was freaking OUT! I did not want to to delay the surgery, so did I want a sick kid! By the grace of God, he and I both never became ill. I had been feeding him probiotics every day for a month since he's always on antibiotics, so maybe that helped his immune system. Either way, I am just so thankful that we were able to go about things as planned.

We had to report to the hospital at 5:45 a.m. to sign in, but they didn't do the surgery until a little after 7. It was not a simple task entertaining Preston that early in the morning, and not being able to offer him drink or food.

They had wagons outside of each room, which entertained him for a few short minutes. Sorry, I only got one picture. I was not in the mood to "document" everything because I was a little emotional that morning.

Once the nurses had me give him the medicine to make him drowsy, he became more manageable, but I guess that is obvious. To be honest, it was such a relief for him to that medicine. He was so wound up and CRANKY! Boy was he cranky. Ronnie doesn't have the patience to deal with his moods for extended amounts of times. (Guess that's one major reason we were made to have the children, not men!) I was holding back tears as his little body became less active, and more relaxed. The funniest thing happened when a I almost began to lose it...his wobbly head looked up at me, and he just grinned so big. He definitely looked like he was drunk/out of it. He kept looking up and grinning at me, so it made me feel better thinking that at least that medicine made him feel good, and not scared.

Then the moment came to hand him over. I did a pretty good job not crying too hard. They immediately walked us to the recovery room, where Ronnie was happy to turn on ESPN. He just acted like nothing was happening. I think he really was worried/nervous/anxious but is better at hiding it. He's much more confident that me though, so maybe he just knew everything would be okay. The doctor came to visit with us about 15 minutes later to tell us that he did a great job during the procedure and everything looked like it went perfectly. The nurses brought Preston in a few minutes later once he began to wake-up. They said he was very sweet, and was very affectionate while he was being put under anesthesia. However, when he returned to us...I don't even know the appropriate words to describe his mood after it. He was beyong grumpy! He ~~drank~~ chugged 2 containers of apple juice, and ate a handful of goldfish. I packed water thinking it'd be easier on his stomach, but they said that water was the worse thing to drink and he needed the juice. Surprised me, but they are the professionals.

He took an early nap, which lasted about 3 hours and was acting completely normal. The doctor even called up that evening to check on him. The hospital staff called the next day to check on him, so I would say we had a pleasant experience.

That same evening, w had plans to have dinner at Nan's. My sister-in-law and her husband were in town from Denver for the holidays. We had them on Christmas last year, so we got them a little before Christmas this year. They are having a baby girl in February, so we are ALL looking forward to next Christmas for sure!

Preston loves to rock in Nan's rocking chair from when she was a child.

James is finishing up seminary, so I figured he'd need a tie organizer at some point.

They got Preston some jumbo lego blocks...best..toys...ever! He could play with them forever!

I was excited to give them their diaper bag. I ordered it from Thirty One and had Anna's name embroidered on it. I heard that those bags hold up pretty well...at least I hope so!