ace’s blog

Aaron, Eli and I have had our fair share of ear problems within the past 6 months or so. Aaron has had it the “easiest”, with the least amount of occurrences. I had quite a few rounds of problems. Eli had it the worst, as far as we could determine.

We finally went to see an ENT and it was decided that he should have tubes put in his ears. We had that procedure completed 2 days ago. The procedure lasted about 15-20min. The recovery time was minimal, maybe an hour. Eli was groggy most of the day, due to the anesthesia. That took about 10-12hrs to finally get out of his system. The tubes have already made a HUGE difference in our lives.

1. Eli has started playing on his own again whereas before, he would always cling to mommy. When we put him down, he quickly crawls to the playroom.
2. He hears better now too! He is starting to try to say new words (I got the first one – dada!)
3. The biggest improvement is that Eli is mostly sleeping through the night again! Over the past 2 nights since the procedure, he has woken up only once each night, at 4:40am Tues night/Wed morning and then at 3am Wed night/Thur morning. Over the past 6 months, he was waking up about 3-4 times a night, sometimes more!

I wish we would have had the procedure performed much earlier than we did! Eli was 10 months old when the tubes were put in, he is officially 11 months old today!

We’ve determined that Eli has spoken his first word! His first word was “dada”. I am extremely happy that despite all of the pain he’s caused my wife (many, many sleepless nights), he decided that “dada” was the best first word he could think of.

We were on the fence for a little while about it actually being a word since “dada” sounds like so many things that baby’s naturally say. He’s been saying it non-stop lately so it’s official, he loves me more! I tried to get him to say mama but he wanted no part of that! He was persistent in wanting dada to be his first word. Who am I to stop him?

In other Eli news, Meri and I are taking him to his ear tube pre-op appointment this afternoon. His “surgery” is scheduled for Feb 10th.  From what I’ve read and been told, recovery time is about an hour after the procedure. We are both very excited about the possibility of him beginning to sleep through the night again. He did for a while, but then the ear aches/pains/infections started.