The big day was Friday for Nathaniel's ear tubes. Sarita spent the night at a friend's house since we were leaving at 5:30 am in order to be at the doctor's by 6:45am. I got up at 4am to make sure the horses and dogs were set. I did not really wake Nathan up. I cheated and semi-dressed him while he was sleeping. I was so hoping he would sleep all the way in but that was not to be. He was awake and ready to go at 5:30 am.

Thank god that the doctor's office was very well prepared to deal with kids. Plenty of toys to keep him busy and, of course, lots of chairs to climb up and on and over. There was one other little girl there that looked to be about 18months to 2 years that was getting ear tubes. They take them in by age so she was first and then Nathan's turn. They took us into what was the equivalent of a emergency room setup. Central nurses station with lots of little rooms that were curtained off from each other. Nathan was up and down the halls keeping mom plenty busy looking for him while we waited our turn. His greatest excitement was at discovering he could close the curtain to our "room" and it was like being in a tent. He kept closing it then climbing underneath to stand on the other side. He would then yell "mama", laugh uproariously, and swing open the curtain. Thankfully the nursing staff was more amused than ticked off.

They then scooped him up (they had forewarned me of their method) and hurried him into the surgical room. 7-10 minutes later he was back snoring away. Dr. Rustad is very good at inserting these tubes in. He is also good with the kids (and the parents). They want the kids to wake up as naturally as possibly but 12 minutes later the nurse was telling me to go ahead and start waking him up. He was up early after all and needed his sleep. He woke up without any crying, had a big drink from his sippy cup and was apparently ready to go. Now this was my favorite part. Being all of 3 and the boss of everyone he wanted to hold on to his sippy cup, his Nemo backpack (on wheels) and his anasthesia mask (they let the kids keep them). He started walking down the hallway to the exit - very drunken soldier like - but as he swayed back and forth he would NOT let mama take his stuff. There were about 4 nurses and the doctors checking out his progress trying real hard not to laugh. When he turned the corner and decided he needed to climb a stepstool on his way out , Mama had to step in, scoop the drunken soldier up and carry him on out. He was ok with that as long as he still got to hold on to all his stuff.

Unlike many stories - once awake he stayed awake. Actually once he got breakfast in him he was wide awake and raring to go. And go he did - ALL DAY. He did not take a nap and would not go to bed until 9pm that night. Then he absolutely passed out and slept over 12 hours. Mom got her 7 hours in so I was a bit better off today. Sarita had her clogging performance today so it was another day off up and out.

So far I have not noticed any differences. He does not like the ear drops but he only has to have them for 3 days total so that is good. The doctor said he had a LOT of fluid built up behind his ears and especially the right one. He thought he would mainly feel weird for a couple of days due to the pressure differences but not that I have seen. We go back in 3 weeks to see if his hearing is any better and check on the tubes.