Totally "Tube"ular!

Today my little Stella had her myringotomy surgery AKA ear tubes. When this was first presented to us I was devastated. I was so incredibly sad to think about my sweet baby girl going through a surgery at just 9 months old. But as time went on and the ear infections continued to happen, I changed my tune. She was miserable and I was so tired of her being sick. I talked to many different friends of mine whose children have tubes and I soon realized that it really wasn't that big of a deal. Of course, I was still worried about the anesthesia. No one wants their baby put under for any amount of time. However, we had a wonderful anesthesiologist and he calmed all of my fears.

We were told that we had to check in at the hospital at 6:00 a.m. and the surgery would be at 7:30. We live about 35 minutes from the hospital so we had to leave our house at 5:20 this morning. We had put Mya to bed at my parent's house last night so that she could sleep in and my dad dropped her off at Lisa's at her normal time. I set my alarm on my cell phone for 2:00 a.m. because they said that Stella couldn't have anything to eat or drink after 3:00 and I thought she would be starving if she had to wait until after the surgery to be nursed. Unfortunately, my alarm never went off. I randomly woke up at 3:45 and was pretty pissed because now it was too late to feed her. So I went back to sleep until 4:30 when it was time to shower. We got ready and were out the door on time. I had to pump in the car on the way there. It was pitch black out and I ended up spilling some of the milk on myself and it looked and felt like I peed my pants.....nice! Anyways, we were on time to the hospital and Stella had fallen back to sleep during the drive.

When we got there they took us back to pre-op and a nurse went through the whole registration process and checked all of her vitals and stats. She weighs 18 pounds now, by the way. The anesthesiologist came and talked to us and explained that they would just be using a mask, no IVs thank goodness, and that they don't use much because the surgery is so short. He went through possible things that could happen, but it is all very rare he said. He told us that she should be back to normal very quickly and that she really shouldn't even be very tired today because the drugs they use don't have much sleeping agents in it. He told us countless times how beautiful she was and that she is child model material :). I liked him! Here are some pictures of her in her hospital jammies while we waited for the surgery.

We brought her elephant blanket "Stellie's Ellie" so she could snuggle her during the procedure. We didn't plan for her to match her jammies, but how perfect!Something about this one makes me think of the penguins in Happy Feet. LOLHangin' with DaddyI love the Reds just like Daddy does.Bummed this one is dark. The flash didn't go off but it is such a cute picture.Just me and MommyAt 7:30 they said that they were ready for us. We carried her out of post-op and down the hall a ways and then the nurse said that this is where we had to part ways. We gave her some kisses and told her we loved her and would be there as soon as it was over. It was a little hard to hand her over to the nurse knowing she was probably confused and a little scared. We went to the waiting room where they gave us a pager (like the ones they give you in a restaurant) and we sat down. I started to grade some papers and less than 20 minutes later the pager went off. A volunteer lady walked us back to the pediatric recovery room where we saw a nurse rocking Stella and giving her some Enfalyte (like Pedialyte). She had just started it and said that I could nurse her now. She was a little bit fussy because she had just woken up and she was also starving I'm sure. It was 7:55. She ate and then the nurse came back in to check her out again. She went over some post-op stuff and we signed the release papers. We were out to the car by about 8:25. Stella fell asleep right away. Wes had made a dentist appointment for 10:30 out in that area so we had some time to kill. We went to Target (of course!) and did some unnecessary shopping. Stella and I dropped him off at the dentist's office and went on to Kohl's where we found some more good deals!We got home around noon and it felt like it should be dinner time. We didn't go and get Mya because we both had a lot of school work to do so while Stella played and slept we got some work done. It was so weird to just have one baby and I have to tell you it was a piece of cake!

Stella was a happy girl today! She feels so much better already!

Wes went and picked Mya up around 3:45. The rest of the evening we played with the girls. When they were ready for bed, it was time for me to tackle my grade cards, which are due tonight by midnight! It's been a long day and I'm ready for bed now!