Liam's surgery

From the moment Liam was born we knew he was tongue tied. I was actually concerned about this when I was pregnant with him because I wanted to nurse him so badly. When the lactation nurse came in our room in the hospital she told me breastfeeding him was going to be excruciating and that he must have his tongue clipped as soon as possible if I wanted to continue feeding him. So as the days went on I realized for sure that nurse was so right. Nursing Liam was extremely painful. During his feedings I would grit my teeth, and sweat horribly because of the pain. I would cry a lot of the time because I wanted nurse him but I just could not continue to do so in this much pain. At his 5 week check up they referred me to go up to Chapel Hill Children's Hospital where they told me that they did not want to do the procedure until he was at least 12 months old because of the risks from anesthesia. So when we came home from the appointment I gave him his first bottle. I just couldn't do it anymore. I was upset, but after a few "it's going to be okay" conversations with my mom and sister I felt better about my decision. So here we are.. now he is 20 months and we are finally taking care of business. We had to be there at 6:30 am. They didn't take us back to pre-op for two hours. That is forever when you have a toddler who hasn't eaten anything to sit in a waiting room so Cameron and I took turns walking him outside. When they finally called us back to the pre-op room Liam was quite cranky. For the next 45 mins he threw the tantrum of lifetime!! Finally the doctor gave him so medicine to calm him down. This is when we took the pictures you see above. He was in a drunken state! It worked like magic potion! Cameron and I couldn't help but to laugh when he would giggle with his eyes squinted. Next it was time to wheel him away. I felt my heart drop and then do a couple of flips. I just wanted this over with! Please give me my baby back!! After about 20-30 mins the doc came out and told us everything went well. We went back to the recovery room and I rocked him for a hour while he was waking up. So far it looks like it is healing well. Although yesterday he spiked a fever at 104. I was able to get it down with Tylenol and today he is doing better and ate for the first time. I am so glad that this is over with and my sweet Liam is feeling better. Hopefully now this will help with his speech and prevent any future problems.

Emotional breakdown...

Mothers Day is on Sunday and I am really hoping it will be special...just sayin. There is nothing like a sacrifice of a mother. Nor is there anything like the horrible feeling of helplessness you get when trying to nurse your sweet children back to health. The last few months have been challenging, to say the least. It first started with Liam getting a staph infection for his horrid eczema, not to long after that he got RSV. The RSV lasted about 2 weeks. I did round the clock breathing treatments even setting my alarm in the middle of the night to do them. I will never forget how loud that machine is at 2:30 am. Right when Liam was getting over that Landon got the croup. I was on the phone with the nurse what seemed like a eternity only for her to tell me there was nothing they can do for him. What! Unacceptable! My poor baby! He needs relief. So I did the only thing I could.. load him up with Tylenol and lots of snuggles. He slept in our room for several nights just because of his breathing. After all of this poor Landon got double ear infections. One of the ear's had some nasty pus and they had to irrigate it out. I felt so bad for my little guy. During this doctors appointment I was sick as well. Nothing like running a fever and having a sore throat with a runny nose and dealing with two sick kids in the doctors office who haven't had naps. I was so happy to leave that place. While all of was going on Liam was still having reactions to certain foods. His skin was covered with eczema. I finally figured out that the soaps I was using on him contained coconut. Liam's little body does not like coconut. Bummer, it's soooo good. Then I found out he is allergic to eggs. His allergist put him on allergy medication to take every day. We saw a big difference. No more red purple eyes, itchy skin, and best of all his general mood is just better. He can hear better now too now that the fluid is draining from his ears. So it sounds like everything was getting better right? Nope, we were hit hard with a horrible stomach flu. Thank goodness Danette was here! Cameron got up around 4am and started puking. While I was helping him I started to feel bad but there was no time to think about that because I took off down the hallway towards Landon's room. Without giving gory details, lets just say I had to change all of his bedding, his PJs, and then give a good face wash. There is nothing like a mother's love I tell ya! Later that day we all were throwing up, even Danette. It took us days to get better. Liam was the last one to get to get rid of it though. So about 5 days later I go to get Liam out of his crib and see that his eyes are sealed shut. Conjunctivitis...just great. I used a warm wash cloth to help his eyes but it was just getting worse. I took him in and the diagnosis.. Bronchitis, sinus infection, and SEVERE conjunctivitis. They gave me a cream to put under his eyelids and a antibiotic. While I am disinfecting I am praying that every bad germ leave this house!! Please, for my own sanity.