Fifteen Months
I missed fourteen months! We were traveling and then there were just too many vacation photos to edit. I regret nothing.
It's been a huge two months for Fritz. Sometime in January, I started worrying that he wasn't talking at all. He had stopped saying the few words that he used back in October and November and was hardly even babbling anymore. I was not at all concerned about his social development -- he's extremely sociable and communicative, just not verbally.
We went to the pediatrician just before we left for Jamaica. She said Fritz definitely had fluid in his ears and referred us to an audiologist. I took him to the audiologist just after we got back. She did three tests and confirmed that he had mild to moderate hearing loss. The audiologist referred us to an ENT but didn't indicate what the likely treatment would be. Luckily we have an in-house audiologist. Aunt Julia reviewed our test results and pretty much told us we were on track for tubes. We saw the ENT two weeks later and, big surprise!, recommended tubes. We told him Fritz had been congested and snotty almost nonstop since October. Apparently if the fluid has been there longer than three months, the chances it will resolve itself are virtually nil, and we were already at five months.
They scheduled the procedure for a week later. It was good we didn't have too long to stress out about it. I realize that, surgically speaking, ear tubes are trivial. But general anesthesia on such a little guy was still scary and I was pretty twitchy about it. So was Henry. He had a ton of questions about it and asked about every doctor's appointment the instant he walked in the door after school. No baby ever had such a devoted big brother.
The surgery went super well. We did it at the Children's Hospital facility in Minnetonka and they were so nice. The whole process was very smooth and designed to make everyone feel comfortable. I was really panicky at the idea of them taking a screaming baby away from us and then putting him under while he was terrified. But it was fine -- after talking to the ENT again, the nurse, and the anesthesiologist, we went back into a very cute little room with lots of things to look at. Fritz got to sit on my lap and the nurse blew bubbles while the anesthesiologist held the mask over Fritz's face. He got very still and heavy and I laid him down on the bed. It basically felt like putting him to bed at night. Freaky to see him comatose, but not nearly as bad as I expected. The surgery part took about three minutes and we were back in the room with him in fifteen minutes. He was crabby for about five minutes, then rallied to eat a granola bar, started running around again, and we were home by 9:30 a.m. It was a very gentle introduction to the world of medical procedures on kids. I've never been so grateful our kids are healthy.
The ENT reported that the stuff in Fritz's ears was very thick -- somewhere between the consistency of rubber cement and taffy. They had to use the larger syringe they normally use for teenagers and then remove more solid stuff with tweezers. Basically no way it ever would have resolved itself, so I'm so glad we went ahead and did the procedure.
It's been five days and he's already talking! He's back to yammering constantly and has seven clear words: Heidi, Izzy, okay, open, boo, hi, baba (bottle), and cheese. Poor little guy was so ready to talk! He has also been absolutely delightful. I wonder if there was low-grade uncomfortable pressure in his ears all the time.
In non-ear news . . . let's see. The weather is getting warmer and we can be outside more. He loves being out, taking walks, and climbing on playground equipment. He is DESPERATE to do everything Henry does and grabs every hockey stick he can reach. In fact, he is currently sporting his first hockey injury because he tripped and wouldn't let go of his stick to put his hands down. Henry is very proud.
Fritz loves giving high-fives and fist bumps, jumping on Henry's bed, sweeping, vacuuming, helping himself to snacks in the pantry, Henry's matchbox cars, and climbing on the furniture. He is our most physically adept child, which is saying something. He taught himself to go backwards down the stairs and to get on and off the furniture safely. Henry just flung himself off, heedless of gravity and the risk of craniofacial stitches. Ingrid was super timid and didn't climb anything. Heidi climb up but would just wail until Henry got her down. Fritz quietly figured out how to navigate everything on his own. #fourthbaby
He's always busy, busy, busy moving things from place to place. We're in the "taking objects in and out of other objects" phase. I can shower in peace while Fritz dutifully unloads every single object from every single cabinet in the bathroom. He loves going to the grocery store because there are SO MANY THINGS that need to be removed from the shelves. He gets really sad when I won't let him finish his work.
Now that he can hear, he's really into music. He came to Heidi's dance class today for the first time in several weeks and was looking around, amazed, like he finally understood why everyone was dancing. His patented Fritzy dance is to get really low and stomp his feet like a Sumo wrestler.
He's entering my favorite phase and I am SO looking forward to the next six months of talking, swimming, playground-ing, and baby dance parties!
It's been a huge two months for Fritz. Sometime in January, I started worrying that he wasn't talking at all. He had stopped saying the few words that he used back in October and November and was hardly even babbling anymore. I was not at all concerned about his social development -- he's extremely sociable and communicative, just not verbally.
We went to the pediatrician just before we left for Jamaica. She said Fritz definitely had fluid in his ears and referred us to an audiologist. I took him to the audiologist just after we got back. She did three tests and confirmed that he had mild to moderate hearing loss. The audiologist referred us to an ENT but didn't indicate what the likely treatment would be. Luckily we have an in-house audiologist. Aunt Julia reviewed our test results and pretty much told us we were on track for tubes. We saw the ENT two weeks later and, big surprise!, recommended tubes. We told him Fritz had been congested and snotty almost nonstop since October. Apparently if the fluid has been there longer than three months, the chances it will resolve itself are virtually nil, and we were already at five months.
They scheduled the procedure for a week later. It was good we didn't have too long to stress out about it. I realize that, surgically speaking, ear tubes are trivial. But general anesthesia on such a little guy was still scary and I was pretty twitchy about it. So was Henry. He had a ton of questions about it and asked about every doctor's appointment the instant he walked in the door after school. No baby ever had such a devoted big brother.
The surgery went super well. We did it at the Children's Hospital facility in Minnetonka and they were so nice. The whole process was very smooth and designed to make everyone feel comfortable. I was really panicky at the idea of them taking a screaming baby away from us and then putting him under while he was terrified. But it was fine -- after talking to the ENT again, the nurse, and the anesthesiologist, we went back into a very cute little room with lots of things to look at. Fritz got to sit on my lap and the nurse blew bubbles while the anesthesiologist held the mask over Fritz's face. He got very still and heavy and I laid him down on the bed. It basically felt like putting him to bed at night. Freaky to see him comatose, but not nearly as bad as I expected. The surgery part took about three minutes and we were back in the room with him in fifteen minutes. He was crabby for about five minutes, then rallied to eat a granola bar, started running around again, and we were home by 9:30 a.m. It was a very gentle introduction to the world of medical procedures on kids. I've never been so grateful our kids are healthy.
The ENT reported that the stuff in Fritz's ears was very thick -- somewhere between the consistency of rubber cement and taffy. They had to use the larger syringe they normally use for teenagers and then remove more solid stuff with tweezers. Basically no way it ever would have resolved itself, so I'm so glad we went ahead and did the procedure.
It's been five days and he's already talking! He's back to yammering constantly and has seven clear words: Heidi, Izzy, okay, open, boo, hi, baba (bottle), and cheese. Poor little guy was so ready to talk! He has also been absolutely delightful. I wonder if there was low-grade uncomfortable pressure in his ears all the time.
In non-ear news . . . let's see. The weather is getting warmer and we can be outside more. He loves being out, taking walks, and climbing on playground equipment. He is DESPERATE to do everything Henry does and grabs every hockey stick he can reach. In fact, he is currently sporting his first hockey injury because he tripped and wouldn't let go of his stick to put his hands down. Henry is very proud.
Fritz loves giving high-fives and fist bumps, jumping on Henry's bed, sweeping, vacuuming, helping himself to snacks in the pantry, Henry's matchbox cars, and climbing on the furniture. He is our most physically adept child, which is saying something. He taught himself to go backwards down the stairs and to get on and off the furniture safely. Henry just flung himself off, heedless of gravity and the risk of craniofacial stitches. Ingrid was super timid and didn't climb anything. Heidi climb up but would just wail until Henry got her down. Fritz quietly figured out how to navigate everything on his own. #fourthbaby
He's always busy, busy, busy moving things from place to place. We're in the "taking objects in and out of other objects" phase. I can shower in peace while Fritz dutifully unloads every single object from every single cabinet in the bathroom. He loves going to the grocery store because there are SO MANY THINGS that need to be removed from the shelves. He gets really sad when I won't let him finish his work.
Now that he can hear, he's really into music. He came to Heidi's dance class today for the first time in several weeks and was looking around, amazed, like he finally understood why everyone was dancing. His patented Fritzy dance is to get really low and stomp his feet like a Sumo wrestler.
He's entering my favorite phase and I am SO looking forward to the next six months of talking, swimming, playground-ing, and baby dance parties!
Comments
Post a Comment