We Are The New Black: Change

I LOVE being a Mommy! I always knew I wanted to have children "when I grew up", and I knew that I would love my children and enjoy watching them grow and learn and achieve, but I don't think that anything I could have imagined would have ever come close to the reality that is being a Mommy. I know that I have only been a Mommy for a short time now, and the road ahead will be filled with both triumphs and heartaches, but I love it and I embrace it.

Brady turned 10 months old on Sunday and he learned how to crawl on Monday! MrKLB and I were both there to watch him take his first crawling "steps" and we were so excited for him! Yes, I know once he really starts crawling he'll be into everything. And I know that we'll have to actually consider baby-proofing the house. And I know that it will be harder to get him to sit still in restaurants or for any reason when all he'll want to do is crawl around and explore... but nonetheless I cheered those first steps and am so excited to see all of his changes. As a Mommy I have learned to love change!

Here is a picture I took a couple of nights ago when Brady was practicing crawling:

I also wanted to be sure I wrote down a few things here so that I don't forget them in the future...

Surgery:

Brady had tubes put in his ears on April 22. He had an ear infection (in both ears) that would not go away when treated with antibiotics. He was given several rounds of various antibiotics and both the pediatrician and ENT were hoping that it would clear up as we got into Spring and he could avoid the tubes. Fortunately, the ear infections did not seem to bother him much (he still slept well, ate well, didn't tug at his ears, etc.) so we were able to buy ourselves a little time to try a few things before jumping to surgery. Unfortunately, though, the infection would not go away and when we went in for Brady's 9 month pedi visit they said the ears looked awful (had white pussy stuff in them) and we should go back to the ENT immediately. We were at the ENT the next day and the surgery was scheduled for the following Thursday. At this point I was just ready to get it over with, though, because I wanted his ears to be better and to not have to give him any more antibiotics.

We were told to arrive at the Children's Healthcare Meridian Mark Surgery Center at 6:30am on Thursday. The surgery was scheduled for 7:45am. Brady wasn't allowed to eat or drink anything after midnight, so I was worried he'd be fussy because he is used to nursing when he wakes up. We got him up at 6 and immediately put him in the car, though, and he fell back asleep on the way there. When we brought him into the waiting area he didn't cry at all. He just kinda sat there pressed up against MrKLB's chest and looked around at all of the other babies. Oh yeah, the other babies. We arrived at 6:30 and the building was quiet and it was dark outside. When I opened the door to the waiting room for the surgery center, though, you'd think it was 10am... there were people and babies and noises filling the room! Wow. I don't know what other surgeries were being performed that day, but some people had their parents and grandparents with them. MrKLB asked me "what is going on that they bring their grandparents?" and I said "I hope we never have to find out." Children's Healthcare is great and everyone we met there - from the receptionists to the nurses to the doctors - was awesome... but I hope we never have to go back!

Back to the surgery - we got checked in and Brady got an ID band to go around his ankle and we got name tags that said "Brady's Mom" and "Brady's Dad". Then we were called back to get his temperature and oxygen levels and then we went into a pre-op room where they told us what would happen, gave us a hospital gown for Brady and told us to go pick out a toy for him. It was really nice... they had 2 big cabinets full of toys and they let the kids pick out a toy. They didn't really have many for Brady's age but we got him a puzzle with numbers on it. He enjoyed chewing on it and hopefully one day he'll actually enjoy playing with it, too! We got Brady into his gown and then MrKLB took him back to the OR. Only one of us was allowed to go back with him, and I nominated MrKLB because I wasn't sure I wanted the image of Brady being put to sleep in my head. MrKLB walked away with Brady and came back about 2 minutes later and we were taken to the recovery area. MrKLB said it was a little hard to see him put to sleep, but he did great. We were only in the recovery for about 5-10 minutes when the surgeon came in to tell us that the surgery was over and Brady did great. A minute later they wheeled him into the recovery room. He was still asleep, lying on this adult-sized hospital bed. He looked so tiny and helpless. I think I may have actually gotten emotional at this point if it weren't for the fact that he almost immediately started to wake up. They took his vital signs and then handed him to me so that I could nurse him... and all was well with the world again. :)

Brady was perfectly normal the rest of the day except for the fact that he would be a little upset when he woke up from naps. We had some drops to put in his ears for 3 days and gave him tylenol for the rest of that day, but that's it. Almost immediately it seemed that he was talking more and that his cold symptoms (runny nose, cough) went away. We go back to the ENT to get his hearing re-checked in a couple of weeks so we're hoping for good results then!

Here is Brady in his hospital gown (bad pic taken from iPhone):

So, now the tubes are in and we're hoping for no more ear infections!

Brady started taking swim lessons at the YMCA a few weeks ago. He LOVES being in the pool and we've had a great time going with him. We're looking forward to spending more time in the pool this summer.

Week 1 Lesson: