Blue Christmas . . . and Happy New Year!

As our family has enjoyed a break from our usual routine over the past couple of weeks, I have also taken a bit of a break from blogging, but I do have things to tell you about our happy (and unhappy) holidays! Number One: Tubes Davis is getting tubes in his ears.  This is currently scheduled for Monday, January 16th, his 10 month birthday.  We went to the ENT a few days before Christmas and they confirmed that his hearing was still normal and that, although he did not have an active infection, there was still fluid in his ears.  Based on his repeated ear infections every time he's caught a cold the past three months, and the use of multiple antibiotics, he was declared a good candidate for tubes.  As much as I hate to think of my baby having a "surgery," however minor, so many people have sung the praises of tubes and I am very hopeful that they will make a positive difference for Davis.  I joked to the ENT that maybe Davis will even start sleeping through the night, to which he responded, "If I could promise that, I'd have a line out the door!"  At least it should relieve the annoyance and pain of ear infections and, if he does get one, we can treat it with antibiotic ear drops instead of an oral antibiotic, which is good since we don't want him to become antibiotic-resistant. Number Two: Bubbles Just a cute little story . . . After Christmas Eve service, we went out to dinner with some church friends on the spur of the moment.  I offered Davis my glass of water and he blew bubbles though the straw, which was just so cute and funny! Number Three: Blue Christmas Davis' first Christmas was kind of a bust.  In the early afternoon, I thought he felt a little warm, and he did have a low-grade fever which worsened throughout the day.  A sick baby does not make for a very fun Christmas.  He enjoyed having both sets of his grandparents visit, but by the end of the day he was a very miserable little boy, which makes for a pretty miserable mommy, too.  I guess it's a good thing he won't remember this Christmas! Number Four: Mama Called the Doctor Of course, the doctor's office was closed on Monday after Christmas, so Davis had another terrible day.  His fever was 102.3 at 7 am, which didn't bode well for the rest of the day.  By that evening, it was a little over 103 and all he wanted to do was rest his head on my shoulder listlessly.  It was sooo sad!  He was acting much better on Tuesday, but we got him in to the doctor and it turns out that they had been seeing kids with the same symptoms all day - fever, coughing, rattling in the chest.  He had a double ear infection again (making me glad for the upcoming advent of tubes) and got shots in both legs for that as well as getting a breathing treatment, which he screamed through.  Poor Davis pretty much thought it was shaping up to the be the worst week of his life.  We got a nebulizer that evening and started giving him treatments every 4 hours to hopefully ward off pneumonia.  He seemed to get better over the next couple of days, and his doctor was pleasantly surprised at his follow-up appointment on Thursday that his ears looked much better and his lungs sounded a lot better, too.  We're still giving breathing treaments off and on (well, we're trying to - he has kind of lost patience with them), but he is a much happier and healthier baby! Number Five: We Wish You a Merry Christmas #2 Later in the week, we went to my sister's house to celebrate Christmas with my family.  We went to the Boar's Head Festival at a local church and opened presents the next day, although Davis decided it was a great day to take an extra long nap (can't argue with that) and I ended up opening most of his presents for him.  He looked super cute sitting in his great-grandmother's little rocking chair, though, and enjoyed touching one of Aunt Shalimar's chinchillas and pulling its whiskers. Number Six: And a Happy New Year! What a great blessing 2011 brought us!  It was a hard year at times, but so rich and rewarding.  We hope that 2012 will bring us many more happy memories and look forward to watching Davis continue to learn and grow.  I, for one, have had a happy new year so far - enjoying three nights in a row of Davis sleeping much better at night and relying more on his thumb-sucking than Mommy to get him to sleep.  Of course, for all I know, three nights might be as long as that streak lasts, but I've tried to enjoy it while I can.  And a girl can hope, right? HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!

From Loving the Life We Live