Unhappy Babies!

I was looking at some newly downloaded pitcs and came across this one. I thought I 'd use it to head this post. Doesn't he look happy! It has now been 10 days since Brayden's surgery. Brayden did very well the 1st 4 days. Starting Christmas night Brayden's behavior started to change. He cried constantly and only wanted mom. Come Sunday Kory started to mention the change in behavior and thought maybe something else was wrong. I know it's bad when Daddy says,"maybe you should take him to the doctor." Being he had had 2 ear infections the month before surgery I thought maybe he had come down with another one. There are no words to describe how cranky and miserable he seemed to be. He would't nurse or eat. On Sunday he went 9 hours before I could get him to eat again. He was pulling on both ears and had a temp off and on. He had dark circles under his eyes due to not sleeping more then 20min. at a time including through the night and his mouth was so dry that his lips were cracking and bleedy. Monday morning I called and made an appt. with his pediatrician. I love his doctor. She didn't find any ear infections, nothing seemed wrong but she too was concerned at his behavior that she was witnessing from him. She sent us home knowing the next day was his post op in Phoenix but to call anyways and discuss his behavior with the surgeon. When I got home from the peadiatrian's I called down to his doctor and had to leave a message for a nurse to call back. Of course she never did.

Tuesday we piled the family in the van and drove the 2 1/2 hours to the post op appt. After having to wait 2 hours before we were finally seen by the doctor he told us Brayden's behavior is typicall. The tylenol with codeine is known to dry a person out and luckily we don't need to give it to him every 4 hours anymore, just as needed. The doctor removed all the dressing and the cathetor so Brayden doesn't need any of his meds anymore. YEAH!!!

It's been 2 days since his post op now. Brayden is still very cranky and insists on being held constantly. At least he'll let his dad hold him now when he's home. The doctor told us with previous patients this kind of behavior can last up to 3 weeks after surgery but usually after the 2 week mark things improve quickly. Here's to 4 more days. Until then the house will continue to stay cluttered, laundry will be done one batch a day and I will do the days worth of dishes after the other kids are in bed and Kory is doing the baby dance with Brayden. It's sad but true that I actually look forward to the 20 minutes of doing the dishes and cleaning the kitchen. Dinner will be cold cereal or pizza just one more night. Tommorrow Kory will be home and will be a great help with Brayden. I plan to make a few freezer meals that will hopefully last over the next week or two. I hate it when my kids are sick. I would much rather be sick then them. As a mom I think it's the worse to know your child is sick or in pain. You do everything you can to make them feel more comfortable but sometimes that's just not enough. It reall sucks that there's not much I can do for him.

We plan to have a few friends come over tonight and ring in the new year with us. Hopefully a few more people in the house will be a good distraction for Brayden. This year we're going to go out with a bang. Happy New Year's!