So yea, Sunday night was about as bad as we could have imagined. I reminded myself frequently "yes, it could be worse. The three of us could have a stomach virus. Someone could drive a car through our front window. A meteor could hit our house. We could be experiencing a quakenado (apparently only a thing in Oklahoma?)" but yea...it was pretty terrible, at least sleep-wise. I put Alaina to sleep around 8 pm and she woke up at 10. Chad went to feed her and she was absolutely shivering from head to toe. Earlier in the day, she had been playing and acting normally, but she felt a little warm and was running a fever of about 100. We chalked it up to teething or ear issues. It may have been a virus though because her fever did shoot up to 102. She wouldn't eat or take Tylenol. She kept falling back asleep while being rocked but couldn't be put in her crib. This dance of rock, walk, lay down, wake up screaming, rock, walk, etc. lasted until 1 am when Chad took her. He let her play for about half an hour and she did fairly well. However, when he tried to put her back to sleep, she got very upset. I was able to get her to sleep off and on but had to be continually walking and rocking her. Of course, she wasn't allowed to have any food or liquid after midnight because of the procedure, which made things considerably more difficult. I stayed up with her until 3:30 but just couldn't do it anymore so Chad took her and of course (!!), she went right back to sleep when he put her in the crib. We were especially ambivalent because we had concerns that they might cancel her surgery since she had a fever (which did go back down, by the way). Just a note in case you were wondering, it's hard to parent on less than 2 hours sleep. But I was glad she slept from 3:45 until we got her up to leave at 5:45.
Now, given our lack of sleep, you may not be surprised to hear that we first drove to the wrong office. Fortunately, Stillwater is a small town and we were able to make it to the right building (which is right in front of our neighborhood...) and were only 8 minutes late for the appointment. I had a lot of concerns that Alaina would be inconsolable given her lack of sleep or food but she was a trooper. She was very calm while they took her vital signs and height/weight. The nurses commented on how good she was being. And she was pretty adorable in her little hospital gown.
The surgery itself was very fast. Chad and I barely had time to move our things into the recovery room and prepare a bottle for her before she was out. Seriously, it was 11 minutes from when they took her from us to when they brought her back. Yes, I timed it. The doctor indicated there was fluid in both ears. In one ear, it was the consistency of engine oil and the other ear was a bit thicker. Neither were horrible (jello is bad apparently) and they were not infected, which of course made Chad and I somewhat question if the surgery was even really needed right now but whatever. Nothing we can do about it now. I was also irritated to learn that we have to use ear plugs every time we bathe her, for as long as she has ear tubes. Annoying.
Alaina was pitiful coming off the anesthesia. She just seemed so confused and mad. Also you could tell she was disoriented and her little head kept flopping forward. Poor little thing. She was angry the entire time we were in the recovery room, especially since they kept coming back to measure her oxygen with a pulse ox on her big toe. They finally let us go after 30 minutes of observation.
Fortunately, Alaina had a few decent naps, so Chad and I did take advantage of sleeping while she napped. Throughout the day though, she had serious mood swings. She was happy some of the time.
But mostly she was mad and grumpy.
Last night her sleep was still pretty dysregulated but we are hoping that's just a product of all that she's been through this week. I guess we will soon see...
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