7 Quick Takes Friday!

I totally didn’t make it back yesterday for an update on Lincoln. Sorry about that. I was pretty busy snuggling him the rest of the day.

This kid is such a trooper. He really surprised me yesterday. The anesthesiologist, bless his heart, was familiar enough with breastfeeding guidelines to only request a 4-hour period of no feeding for little Lincoln before surgery, so at 3 o’clock a.m. I fed him one last time, put him back to sleep, and then got up and started getting ready to go. He slept soundly until I changed his diaper and clothes and strapped him into the carseat, at which point I had the brilliant idea of putting a pacifier in his mouth for the hour-long car ride to the surgery center.

Here’s why this was a terrible idea: 1) Lincoln was hungry, 2) pacifiers are plastic and do not release food, and 3) Lincoln, like all of my stubborn offspring, has refused a pacifier since day 1.

Basically, all I did was get him rooting around and piss him off, so instead of going back to sleep he cried the whole way there. And then fell asleep when I was parking, and stayed asleep until they put the anesthetic mask on him.

At which point he woke up, turned purple, and then went under.

I freaked, naturally, and became a Textbook Example for why mothers shouldn’t be allowed to go back to the OR ever, even just to stay with their kid while he goes under. I started shouting, “That can’t be normal! That’s not normal! Is he dying? Why don’t you have those monitor things on him? Check his pulse! Check his freaking pulse! Get the paddles! Get–” and then I was way-too-kindly ushered out and reassured that he was fine, babies just turned funny colors sometimes.

Of course, I spent the next ten minutes wringing my hands and pacing until the ENT came out and told me that it went well, Lincoln was fine, and the tongue tie was quite a bit more pronounced than the ENT realized at first. He assured me that the surgery was definitely the right call and that we should see a big difference in him.

Five minutes later, the nurse came to get me. As soon as I passed the double doors I could hear little Linky screaming, and I literally took off running toward the sound of his voice. I snatched him out of the nurse’s arms and sat down to feed him. The poor little guy was starving, confused, and groggy, but he immediately latched on like he never has before and drained my breast (blech, I hate that word. I feel dirty just typing it) in about 10 minutes. He ate more in that 10 minutes than he usually does in 45 minutes of nursing. It was amazing.

And then I apologized to the nurse for freaking out in the OR and grabbing Lincoln from her. She laughed and said she had two of her own and completely understood. I still felt bad, though.

Lincoln, one hour post-op

Lincoln has been happier and less gassy than I’ve ever seen him. He spent a solid fifteen minutes this morning laughing at the ceiling fan’s crazy antics before falling asleep right on the floor, something that he almost never does. And then he stayed asleep while I moved him to his bassinet. It’s an Advent miracle. God bless doctors and scalpels.

I really hope this lasts.

Guess what yesterday was?

The last class of the Ogre’s semester! Hell yeah!

He still has extreme writing center duties next week. The tutors who help him out are all students and have their own finals to study for, and because he’s such a nice guy he gave them the week off, which means he has to be at the writing center from 6 till 10 every night. (Bedtime alone? Kill me now.)

But after that, my husband will be home at night. Home. at. night.

No Image Available — Aren’t you guys lucky today!

This means two things: 1) I can’t watch crap TV like Once Upon a Time anymore, and will probably have to acquiesce to a string of awful action movies while he blows off end-of-the-semester stress. But, more importantly, 2) we can make out on the couch while the kids are sleeping like adults instead of hiding in the closet while they’re awake.