Sam's Surgery in October

Waaaaay back in October, Sam had his tonsils and adenoids removed.

It's a decision we've made for several of our other children...but it seemed a lot more clear-cut with them.  For example, Hannah basically had strep for about 8 weeks and we couldn't get rid of it (which, eventually, is very bad for your heart), or Rex had chronic ear infections and a set of tubes.  

Sam never got ear infections.  But he was regularly getting sinus infection, and was just generally miserable all the time.  It was frustrating to watch, and we felt like it was seriously affecting his ability to learn to talk.  We had his speech evaluated twice, and both times, he was borderline but not severe in his speech delay.

We finally took him to an ENT, who tried various medications, but nothing improved.  He told us Sam's tonsils were big (a Haynes family trait, I'm afraid), but that he could go either way with leaving them in or taking them out.

At length, we decided to go forward with the surgery.  But as a mommy, I struggled with the decision, since it wasn't easily arrived out.  My mother fears were in overdrive, and I worried about all sorts of things going wrong.  He was the most miserable little critter during the week after his surgery that I continued to question our decision.

However...three months later, he is sooooooooo much better!  He doesn't get sick so often, and when he does get sick, he is able to resolve it without antibiotics, or even much congestion medication.  In fact, when the rest of us got miserably ill with flu-like symptoms over Thanksgiving, Sam sailed through it like a pro.  AND he talks like a maniac now.  

Pre-surgery "snacking."

Poor little man!  He was seriously miserable for about a week.  Sariah was a good big sister, and tried to keep him entertained.

Vindication

So, I had a really great laugh last night.  But you're going to need some history to appreciate it.

During The Oklahoma Christmas Blizzard in December, one of the whirlybird thingies on top of our house got ice in it, but didn't completely freeze up.  It still turned, but we could hear it scraping throughout our entire house.  At night, when Bob and I got into bed, it made both of us NUTS.

After the first night of this, Bob comes to me and says somewhat hopefully and somewhat ruefully (because he knew what my reaction would be), "So, I guess climbing up on the roof to knock the ice off that thing isn't really an option?"

I'm sure my reaction was entirely reassuring: "Are you freakin' crazy?!?!?  You know how many layers of ice are up on that roof, and it's incredibly steep!  That would be completely insane!  I can't believe you even thought of it at all without immediately dismissing it."

In hindsight, I understand that he felt compelled to defend himself and his thought processes.  Really, I do.  But when he told me he'd thought of anchoring himself with rope, I rolled my eyes rather violently, sighed quite huffily, laughed hysterically, and stomped off.  Climb the icy roof with rope, indeed!  I was so glad we didn't own enough rope to actually accomplish that.

I happened to mention this to my Mom and Dad when I was talking to them later that afternoon.  I didn't really mention the rope part, because I thought Dad would worry that I'd married some kind of irresponsible freak show.  I didn't feel very vindicated when Dad said something along the lines of, "Well, thinking of it isn't really that horrible as long as you don't put it into action.  I would have thought about it for a long time.  You really do have to look at something from all the angles."

"Well!" thought I.

Not too long after that, I talked to my brother over the phone, and mentioned the laugh I had when my dad came through in defense of my poor berated husband.  And Chad says something like (in a very delighted tone of voice), "Oh man, they have these really cool rope anchoring kits at the hardware store, and that would have been perfect for climbing up there!"

What the...?!?!?  The three men I love and respect the most in my life had completely lost their minds.

Men!

And now I arrive at last night.  I was chatting with a family friend.  Their kids are slightly older than ours, and we really admire them and look up to them.  They have a truly amazing family, and spend a lot of time loving and serving the people around them.  The translation of all of that is that we really respect them, right?

She tells me that during the more recent ice storm, they lost electricity for 36 hours.  When it finally came back on, they wanted to watch TV, but their satellites were frozen.  She goes out that day, and sees her dad (who lives across the street) perched up on a ladder on the side of the house unfreezing his satellite.  She tried to convince him to unfreeze hers, too, but hers is way up on the top of their two-story house.  No dice there.

Later, she sees her husband walking around the house with a big length of rope.  He's going to unfreeze her satellite for her.  She tells him she doesn't need it at the cost of a dead husband.  He unfreezes it anyway, by taking his rope, and having one of his sons anchor him, and going out on the roof via the second story, and getting the job done.

By now, I was laughing so hard.  I came home and told my husband the story, and I'm sorry to say that he felt completely vindicated and that my hideous, hysterical tirade over Christmas was completely out of line because obviously a bunch of men we really respect thought up the same ideas he had and then some of our favorite people actually carried them out.  I was a mean wife, and it was completely inexcusable.  But he kissed me and told me he loved me and tucked me into bed.

I didn't sleep for a long while.

Hmph!  Men!

Heartbeat

I had my first ultrasound this morning.

The tech asked me, "And why are we doing this ultrasound today?"

And I promptly replied, "Because I'm a great big wuss."

"So, for reassurance then?"

Well, yes. I have enough anxieties (yes, I'm still worrying about swim team and my husband flying) without worrying about having a miscarriage since I've told all sorts of people via my blog, my big mouth, and my kids. And to top that off, I haven't been terribly sick. Now, I don't want to look a gift horse in the mouth here, but it is really unusual for me to be this unsick. And in the past when I haven't been sick and had a positive pregnancy test, the pregnancy turned out to be not actually viable. Now that I've said all this, I'll be deathly ill with morning sickness for the next 32 weeks.

The verdict is: a so far healthy looking baby, with a great heartbeat. I would post the picture here, but really it just looks like a jelly bean. It doesn't look so vague when you're actually looking at the machine, but the printed picture is really fuzzy.

In any case, once a heartbeat can be detected, your chances of miscarriage go from 1 in 6, to 2 in a 100 (why don't they just say 1 in 50? it still sounds so much better).

So, now my husband can quit worrying about me worrying. He wasn't worried about the baby at all. But my ridiculous (my word, not his) anxieties were getting a little old.

I think I'll go celebrate with a little Ted's. :)

Love at Home

JSYK, it poured all night long and it was fabulous. Even when I was joined in my bedroom by first Junebug, then Sariah, then Caleb.


The rain made my birthday week feel just like it should. When I was a little girl, it rained on my birthday a lot. We lived in the desert, and I loved it. Except when it prevented me from having swimming parties.


We are such a loving family! So last night, Hannah--sweet, kind, good, responsible Hannah, who wouldn't hurt a fly--slammed Elisabeth's pinky finger in the bathroom door. I put ice on it, gave her Motrin, and sent her to bed. I was quite proud of myself for only calling Dr. Bob, instead of Dr. Bob, Dr. Tiffany, and Dr. Dad, and for not overreacting to such a minor incident. Aren't you proud?


This morning it was still discolored and a bit swollen and painful to bend, so off to the Urgent Care Center we went. I can only control my Mother Fears for so long. Obviously, my child was in great pain, and if we didn't get her seriously maimed finger cared for soon, it might have to be amputated.


It was fractured.


And my sweet, kind, good, responsible Hannah who wouldn't hurt a fly, raised her hands up in the air like a gold medal champion when Caleb congratulated her heartily with "You broke Elisabeth's finger, Hannah!!!!!!!"

Snapshots

While Rex was getting dressed this morning--
Mom: "Is that clean underwear?"
Rex: "No. ... You know how I know? I've been wearing it for 10 days."
A brief pause.
Rex: "I should get some new ones, huh?"
Mom: "Yeah, maybe."

While Hannah was showering this morning, I heard the hair dryer on in the locked bathroom. Somewhat fearfully, I sprinted to the bathroom, briefly uttering up my petition that my oldest child was not even now in the process of electrocuting herself (see? those mother fears can eat you alive!). This fear left my head as she unlocked the door. The bathroom was full of steam and the shower was indeed still running. Her hair was damp (as opposed to freshly washed and wet), and she was drying it. I asked suspiciously, "Have you showered yet?" "Oh, yes!" "Are ya sure about that?" "Wellllllllll..." she says.

We are absolutely the epitome of cleanliness, let me tell you.

We walked to lunch at the elementary school today. Rex made quite a sight in the following get-up:



The bike riders rode more miles than we walkers tallied up.



But we had us another fine nature walk. Rex and I spied this scissor-tailed flycatcher along the way. It's the state bird of Oklahoma so we were quite proud of ourselves.



And in the drainage ditch, we found not only those pretty big fish, but also pretty little fish, bright green dragonflies, and a turtle. See? We've got nature.

And then Rex pronounced that we had found The Mystery of the Lost Sandal and The Mystery of the Red Undies (Eeeeeeewwwwww!!) (Giggle, giggle). You must say it, just so. Right there in the school parking lot. I love nature walks.

Of course, it took us all evening to cool off. We had fruit chillers and ice water and milk and sprinklers and pools and ice cream sandwiches. I liked Rex's way best.