Loving the Life We Live: Ten Months . . . and Tubes

Davis celebrated his 10 month birthday (!!!) by getting tubes put in his ears this morning. Fun fun fun.

Actually, it wasn't bad at all. I was mainly worried about how Davis would handle fasting for 8+ hours before the surgery, since he still wakes in the night and nurses. Other than that, I was not too thrilled at the thought of my little baby getting "put under," even though I know the risks of anesthesia are low.

My strategy was to stuff as much milk into Davis as possible before midnight and then to make Greg go in and soothe him for any additional night wakings. Was I actually kind of looking forward to my dear husband taking a turn at the night-soothing duties for once? Maybe. :) Davis went to bed as usual between 7 and 7:30 and woke up just as I had crawled into bed between 9 and 9:30 (if that sounds early to you, you are not the parent of a baby who doesn't sleep through the night). He wasn't full-out crying, and I could tell he'd probably go back to sleep in a few minutes if left to himself, but since my plan was to fill his tummy with milk at every opportunity, I scooped him out of bed to feed him. He was probably a little confused because he wasn't hungry and really just wanted to go back to sleep, but he cooperated and was soon "topped off," conked out in my arms and back in his bed. I next heard from him around 11:20 or so, this time giving more of an "I'm really awake now and want my Mommy" cry, which worked out great for getting one last feeding in. I crawled back into bed, thinking, "Now it's Greg's turn if he wakes up again!" I was picturing him trying to comfort a hysterical baby who just wanted his Mommy's milk and couldn't fall back asleep.

So of course Davis didn't get up until close to 6:30 a.m., when we were going to need to get him up soon anyway to get ready. (Sure, he let out a few cries once in the night, but the kind where he was back asleep on his own after a minute or two.)

I think that Greg really lucked out, don't you?

The second part of my strategy was to and stay away from Davis as much as possible (as sad as that sounds), since I knew as soon as he saw/smelled Mommy, he would realize that he was starving. That worked out pretty well, too. There were some tears here and there throughout the morning, but mostly he was okay during the car ride to the surgery center and with Daddy holding him once we got there. He even fell asleep in Daddy's arms by 8:30 and took a nice little half-hour nap, which was great since the 8:45 surgery ended up taking place at 9:15.

Greg and I both went into the ER with him and I held his hands and talked to him while they held the mask to his face (it helped that he recently had to wear a mask for breathing treatments, so it wasn't a totally foreign concept to him). His eyes started to droop, then closed, and he was peacefully sleeping. No fussing, no tears, no big deal.

We went back out to wait and it couldn't have been more than 15 minutes before the ENT came to talk to us to tell us that Davis did great and to give us post-op instructions and drops for his ears. We were then able to join our brave little boy in recovery, where he had already woken up and was crying.

Mommy to the rescue! I fed him right away and he was one relieved little baby. I'm sure his ears felt funny, though, and he was cranky and out-of-sorts. We could have stayed longer if we wanted to, but I thought that Davis would probably feel better being at home, so we loaded our sad baby into the car and headed home. After a while, the crying stopped, and by the time we got home he was sound asleep.

Cuddling and drinking more milk to his heart's content segued into a nice nap in Mommy's arms for over an hour and a half, and he woke up feeling much better.

Only a few hours after the surgery, he was happily crawling around with a smile on his face (although he seemed a little tipsy - he must be having to readjust his balance) and ripping up the Target and CVS ads (a favorite activity that can keep him occupied for long, long periods of time).

And - so far at least - that has been our experience with getting tubes!

Pretty anti-climactic, isn't it?

He seems a bit sleepier than normal and is now napping in his crib. You can't beat that.

At 10 months old, Davis is starting to get more of a "big boy" look to him. Multiple people have commented that his hair is starting to grow in more. He still likes to pull up and stand, and will sometimes support himself with only one hand or transfer from one piece of furniture to another, although he's not really "cruising" yet. There have been a couple of times where he has let go with both hands, but quickly found something to grab onto. We try to encourage him to hold our hands and take steps, but he's not really interested in that and just buckles at the knees. He can sit up on his knees and he can crouch. He has that amazing baby flexibility and has been observed multiple times sleeping with his feet up by his ears. He likes getting into cabinets and taking things out of them. The bottom door of our double oven is at just the right height for him to pull up on and I think he likes to look at his reflection in it (don't worry, we keep him away from the oven when it's hot!). He loves the remote control and really wants to play with the computer. If you take something away from him, he gets mad - for example, he was holding Mommy's water bottle on the way home today and cried when I "borrowed" it back from him to take a drink. I gave it back, he "kissed" it, and pretty soon he fell asleep with it still clutched in him hands (pretty adorable).

He still has no teeth and no sign of their coming. I have read that late teethers are typically late eaters. He has shown marginally more interest in food lately, if you happen to catch him in the right mood. He really only wants fruit, and I've recently made some apple-banana-blueberry and peach-pear-blueberry-rice cereal purees that have been big hits. We have given him banana "Baby Mum-Mums" (flavored rice rusks) occasionally over the past 3 months or so and he has only ever played with them before, but last week I managed to pop the end of one into his mouth and, although he initially made a face, he then bit down and seemed to think "not bad," proceeding to gobble up the rest of it. What a big boy! On Saturday, I offered him some bits of melon while we were shopping at Sam's Club (gotta love those free samples) and he chewed them up and opened his mouth for more! So I experimented later that day with giving him pieces of blueberries and a few toasted oats (like Cheerios). He wouldn't self-feed, but if I popped them into his mouth, he chewed, swallowed, and then accepted more. I thought that was a big step for him!

I'm having trouble understanding how you're supposed to know when your baby is actually saying words and meaning them rather than it just being a coincidence. I have suspected for a while that Davis might be saying my name (umm-ah) and one day when he looked at me and said, "Mama" clear as a bell, I felt like it was a first word. But then he hasn't really continued doing it, so I'm unsure again. He babbles "dada" a lot, but I don't know if he connects it with Greg. It was funny, though, because as I picked up the cell phone to call Greg at work and tell him that I thought Davis had said "mama," Davis reached for the phone and said, "Da-dee." Coincidence? Just babbling? First words? I have no idea.

I am trying to get Davis to do things like wave bye-bye, play peek-a-boo and patty-cake, and clap his hands like "the books" say he should be starting to do, but I think he just thinks I'm crazy. Oh, well. I figure all kids know how to clap and wave by the time they go to kindergarten, and he's going to do those things on his own timetable and not mine!

It shocks me to realize that Davis is already 10 months old. He is so special and such a loved little boy!

And, of course, I have pictures to share!

Apparently, Davis didn't get the memo that children under 2 shouldn't watch any TV.