tubes

Here is Jesse right after I buckled him in to the van the morning of his surgery.
Not feeding him was one of the hardest things, and he was such a good sport. I would hold him and he would grab my shirt and scream. Putting him in to the car seat, he arched his back and tried to hold on to me. He actually fell asleep in the van on the way to the hospital for the surgery. As soon as he was unbuckled he was wide awake, much calmer, but still hungry. There was a little girl in the waiting room, a month older than Jesse that was getting tubes too, minutes after Jesse in fact. He played with her until they called us back.

He then got checked in, papers brought to me and signed by the surgeon, anesthesiologist and nurse. Bracelets were put on the both of us, cute little booties for Jesse and the littlest hospital gown I ever saw. I had brought a pear so that I could have something to eat while he was there, he found my treat and when his mean Mommy wouldn't let him eat, he decided that neither of us needed it and threw it on the floor, poor little boy, his tummy was hungry. He had fun playing in the rocking chair until they took him. The nurse comes in the room, takes the baby and walks swiftly out as to not cause too much separation anxiety, no chance to get a goodbye out to have the baby realize that he is leaving his Mom.
Jesse was only gone about fifteen minutes, they did an ear test, which he failed, let him breathe in some gas that put him out and made an incision in his ear drums and put the tubes in(blue that matches his eyes) and then they brought back a very hysterical baby. I nursed him, he would stop intermittently and scream and then go back to what he was doing. It was about an hour of screaming, crying, whining. He was calm on the drive over to the doctors office to be checked out by the RN. He needed to be checked to make sure that there was no blockage of the tubes from blood or anything else. It all looked good, and we go back in two weeks.

Later that day before I had to go pick up the other children, I had given him his ear drops and his right ear started to bleed. I was freaking out a little, wasn't sure if it was from him bonking his head, from the drops or what. So I called the nurse again, she reminded me of what she had told me at the office. I remembered what she had shown me, twisting up tissue to clean out ears, but what i hadn't realized when she had shown me this is that it would be to clean out blood in his ears as well as the excess fluids from impending ear infections. So the blood that had me freaked out was probably just dried blood that when the drops were added to the ears, was made wet and cleared out, and I am happy to say that there has been no more blood coming out of his ears!

The tubes will help him in that if he does get subsequent ear infections, the tubes will drain his ears so that the fluid wont collect and get infected, it will drain! Instead of staying in there for months.
Jesse has been using his voice so much more these past few days. He was into screaming on Wednesday, just to hear his scream :)

ENT

Jesse had his appt with the ENT Dr. (Ear Nose throat) after three months of an ear infection that just doesn't seem to want to go away. He has been treated with amoxicillan back in March when he went to the pediatrician for his nine month check up and then in April he was on omnicef and came back two weeks later at the beginning of May and it was still there and so he was given Augmentin. We just went back after the augmentin was finished and the ear infection was still there. So on Tuesday he was started on injections and azithromycin at the same time hoping to get this bug once and for all, at that appointment we were also told to go ahead and contact an ENT Dr. So after 4 days on antibiotics and shots we went to the Pediatrician and the ENT Dr. yesterday. Both ears are still filled with fluid and infected severely, then Dr. Heras ran tests on his ears and that didn't look good. Jesse is scheduled to go in on Tuesday morning to get tubes put in his ears. It is going to be so difficult and I all ready am dreading it, all ready feel so bad for my little boy. He is not allowed to eat or drink anything the day of until after the surgery. He is going to be one cranky, hungry, unhappy little boy until they put him out on Tuesday morning.
The Pediatrician, Dr. Davis explained a bit about the ears and tubes to me. Ear infections happens when fluid builds up in the area behind your baby's eardrum and then becomes infected. Babies are particularly susceptible to ear infections because their Eustachian tubes are short (about 1/2 inch) and horizontal. As they grow to adulthood, their tubes triple in length and become more vertical, so fluid can drain more easily.

So because Jesse's tubes are horizontal they are having a hard time draining and the medications have not cleared it up. so when the tubes are put in it should immediately drain his ears. During the procedure, which is done under general anesthesia, an otolaryngologist makes a tiny incision in the child's eardrum and inserts a millimeters-long tube into the slit. These tubes act as a vent, letting air in and fluid out so bacteria can't flourish. "It helps the Eustachian tube work better"

26

My Birthday was awesome!!

Jesse opened my presents for me! He was amazing!
Daddy picked out great gifts, a candle and...
colorful maracas, woohoo!
that Abbi begged Mommy to use on her
My children and husband made me a cake.
and even ran out to get me ice cream!
and then we went on our first date in 12 months
my bestest friend Mandy watched my children! All of them including Jesse!!!
We went to P.F Changs for dinner
and played some awesome miniature golf with
some great adult humor

This Land is your Land

Abbi went to a dance a combination tap/ ballet class at Expressions Dance. She had a lot of fun, it was part of her personality to ask everyday of the week if it was dance class or preschool, the two things that she most enjoyed. She got herself dressed for dance and she loves to wear make-up. So the night of her recital she was enjoying herself getting all fancied up. It took a long time to do her hair, she didn't whine or scream, just let me know when it would hurt and would ask me if i could be done soon. Such opposite personality of her sister.Her performance was towards the end of the program, each tap and ballet class had a holiday theme, Abbi's class's holiday was forth of July. She was definitely our little firecracker up on stage tapping and dancing to This Land is Your Land. It was really fun watching her through the window in her class for many weeks and months before her performance. Seeing how she did in class, following with the teacher occasionally, and looking at the floor or the friend next to her and then seeing her on stage, seeing how much she really was paying attention to the teacher and how AMAZINg she was. What a proud mother, what a beautiful Abbi!

11 months

Jesse you are such a sweet baby, growing so fast and learning so quickly. This past week you decided that you would be interested in your sippy cup. It has been given to you since you were five months old, but you didnt want anything to do with drinking from it, you did love the sippy with the soft tip, biting on that was comforting for your gums that were welcoming in those cute little teeth, otherwise the sippy would end up on the floor. You even caught Mommy drinking from a big cup and decided that you needed it more than mommy and started drinking from a big cup with help, what a big boy you are!

You had your first hair cut last night.
before pictures: I wanted to get your haircut when we were at Great clips the day before Easter, but Daddy said he liked your hair. But I decided you at least needed it trimmed around your ears and so I did, and it turned out great! You loved the clippers that I used on you. I put it on your hand and let it vibrate there for a minute, and streaked across your face came the biggest grin ever! You were really good, you didn't scream and were very calm. Just a little wiggly and that is to be expected. You are now in to everything, you have to know what is going on with every noise that you hear and thing that you see.
You love to climb stairs, whenever we go somewhere and you see stairs, you head straight for them. Here you are at Abbi's recital this past Saturday, You and I enjoyed playing on the stairs. and stand up next to things, especially next to cupboards and doors to pull everything out of the cupboards. The pots and pans and the movie cupboard seem to be your favorite.
You had your first real popsicle this past week, grape flavored! You loved it. You held it by the stick and you wanted to try to turn it around and hold it the other way, but when you felt the cold and the melting popsicle in your palm, you must have known something was not right and turned it right back around to hold the stick. Your fifth tooth popped through this past week as well, Friday I think is when it really broke through and was above the gums, and you have been such a trooper especially with having ear infections for almost two months straight and cutting in new teeth. And you have all ready put that new tooth to a lot of good use. New foods have been introduced such as corn dogs and apples with their peels removed you seem to using these new foods to break in your new tooth, chewing them up in to bite sized pieces and leaving them in a pile either on your lap or on the table, what a talent! Though I am not sure how much of the food that you are given is actually swallowed, I am glad that you are putting it to use.