Cooper had his tonsils and adenoids removed a few weeks ago.
I was very nervous about the whole thing, but I knew he needed to have it done. He has always snored and I brought this up to our pediatrician a few times and he just told me that his tonsils were large but it was no big deal unless it was causing him to get sick or ear infections all the time. He was never sick and never had ear infections so I just let it go. Until we went to Branson and Cooper slept in the bed with us and I realized that he was not getting any real sleep. He would wake himself up all night long because he would stop breathing and he would wake up and catch his breath all night long. I knew this was not right and wanted to check again with the doctor. I did and he sent me to an ENT and the ENT confirmed that he had sleep apnea and that his tonsils were in fact very large and it would take him a really long time to grow into them.
We got to the hospital and checked in and played while we waited.
They called us back and got him changed and gave him something to relax so we waited for that to kick in before they took him back.
The whole procedure only took about 15 minutes start to finish. Coming out of anesthesia was probably the worst part about all of it. He was confused and just cried and cried.
They took us back to a room and we got settled in for the rest of the day and watched movies and rested. I stayed the night with him and he ate a good dinner of mac n cheese and watched every movie we had.
After a long day and night in the hospital, he was ready to break out of there and get home to see his bubba and sissy.
The day in the hospital was the easy part. The next 10 days after we got home were rough. He was in pain and didn't understand what was going on. He didn't want to eat anything because it hurt too much. He didn't want to swallow so he would hold his slobber in his mouth and it would just sit there. He would wake up every night about the same time in pain. We weren't getting much sleep and it felt like I had a newborn to care for again!
Things did start turning around when he would want to eat but he mostly requested donut holes and chocolate milk.
And then, after a very long week, I finally saw this smile...
It was so awful to see him in that much pain, and the lack of sleep was driving me crazy, but in the end it was completely worth all of it. He is sleeping so much better now. No snoring and no constantly waking up. He is getting a full nights sleep now and even requires less sleep at night and at nap time. He is happier (except for the normal terrible twos tantrums) and I was even able to potty train him during our two weeks at home!
