Health,  Marriage Confessions,  Parenting

New Ears!

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Yesterday we took Gracie in to get tubes in her ears. I was a little worried going into it, but mostly I was excited for her. Gracie’s ears have been such trouble for her, and I was so ready for them to be cleared up. She’s getting to the age where she’s trying to form words and we can tell that she’s having trouble doing that because she can’t hear very clearly. It was time for tubes.

We had to be at the surgery center by 6:00am, so we got the kids up and going at 5:00 and headed out. They checked Gracie in and we waited for almost an hour (which really irritated me because they made us get there so gosh darn early). The hardest part of waiting was that Gracie hadn’t been able to eat breakfast that morning, and so we made Bean wait on his breakfast, too, until Gracie went back in to surgery. Otherwise, Gracie would have been really mad. So, we had two tired and hungry kids to keep entertained. It was a little tough. I brought a backpack full of activities, so we all four sat around and played games and colored until it was time to go back.

When they finally called Gracie back, it went relatively quickly. We had to put her in a hospital gown and sit her in the big hospital bed. She was not happy with any of that. She didn’t want anything to do with the hospital. She pretty much cried from the moment we went back to the moment we left. We did as much as we could to keep her happy, but it was hard to blame her. I don’t like hospitals either.

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When it was time for her to go back with the doctor, a team of nurses came to get her. Gracie had been infatuated with one of the surgical nurses from the moment we got there. I don’t know what it was about her, but Gracie just stared and stared at her the whole time we were there. Whenever this nurse came into the room, Gracie would actually stop crying and stare at her. When it came time for them to take her from me, that nurse came and got her and Gracie was so distracted by staring at this woman that she didn’t really notice that she was leaving us. I’m sure she cried when she got back to the operating room and realized we weren’t there, but I just try not to think about that…

We waited for about 15 minutes and then the doctor came out and brought us back to a little private waiting room to tell us about the procedure. She said it went well, but that Gracie’s ears looked awful when she was in there. There was so much fluid in them and both her eardrums were inflammed. The doctor said she cleaned and drained everything out, but she still put her on an antibiotic and ear drops to clear up any infection. Overall, though, she said it went great.

“She’s a feisty girl!” the doctor told us.

The nurse told us that Gracie might be sensitive to sound for the next couple days because she isn’t used to hearing at full volume. They told us to try to keep things a little quiet that day to help her adjust. With two dogs and two small kids, our house is anything but quiet. Turns out, Gracie ended up being the loudest of them all! By 10:30 that morning, Gracie was back to her normal self. She was babbling, yelling, laughing, playing, walking, and just generally enjoying life with her newly improved ears.

So far, she has been perfectly fine with her tubes. The only time we’ve noticed anything different was this morning. Normally, Gracie is the last of the family to wake up in the mornings. We all get loud with getting dressed and having breakfast around 6:30, but Gracie sleeps through that and doesn’t wake up until I go in and get her until 7:00. But this morning at 6:30, I heard her start crying in her crib, which was another difference because she never cries when she wakes up. I found her sitting in her crib, mad as anything. She wasn’t even crying, she was yelling with her hands over her ears. It was such a clear message: “WHY ARE YOU ALL SO LOUD?!?!?!?”

And then tonight, she woke up several times when the dogs started barking or when Bean started yelling, and she has never done that before. I think she is just able to hear a lot more now and it seems to make her a little bit lighter of a sleeper. I’m pretty sure she just has to get used to her new ears and then she’ll be just fine with the volume in our house.

At least, I hope so because I keep looking for a volume button for our household and I have yet to find one…

So far, the tubes have been such a blessing for little Gracie. It was a super easy procedure with so very little recovery time. I’m so happy for her. New ears are so fun!

30 Comments

  • The Life and Times of Me

    Don’t you hate how you have to be there before the sun comes up and then they make you wait? I never understood that. Everytime my son has gotten tubes (3 times in 4 1/2 years) he has to readjust to the noise level, but within a few days he’s back to his normal self. And life is so much easier with tubes. I am very thankful to whoever invented them.

  • Alyssa

    thank you for sharing all of this info with us 🙂 Lots of children have this issue and it’s such a common procedure but parents being what we are get nervous about everything! It’s nice to see how simple it is and how (so far) it’s really made your lives better!:) New and improved Gracie! 🙂

  • Megan

    My two year old had tubes about 3 weeks ago, I work for the Ent that put them in as his nurse but I was still anxious because of course it’s different when it’s ure child! She’s done great!!! 3 weeks and she is already pronouncing words alot more clearly because now she can hear them clearly, Im sure Gracie will adjust quickly and before u know
    It be able to say a ton of words!!!!

  • kirsten

    try getting her a white noise machine, it works wonders for drowning out a noisy house, a fan will works too. but the white noise machine also travels well.

  • Kat

    I am so glad that everything went well!!!!!!!! I sometimes wonder if P is having trouble hearing (she seems to have trouble with forming words and she had a TON of ear infections – and she’s a wicked good sleeper…that makes me nervous).

  • Christy

    I’ve only had one semester of nursing school and I already know that babies have short ear canals (not fully developed yet) and that’s why they are so prone to infections. It’s definitely common and I hope that the tubes will help Gracie and give you more fun-PTO, rather than sick-baby-PTO. I want to know that surgical nurse’s secret! Was she wearing something shiny or colorful?

  • Stephanie @ Our Marriage Adventure

    I know she hated it, but she looks really cute in her hospital gown and cap. 🙂 So….are tubes like expected for all kids? Because I swear you can’t hear about a child without hearing they need / had / or currently have tubes in their ears. I’m just curious how normal this is?

  • Sara R.

    I definitely recommend the white noise machine! Our son doesn’t have tubes, but he had chronic ear infections until he was 2 and then he just grew out of them. But as soon as he was hearing better he was waking up a lot more at night. The sound machine solved the problem right away! It also works great when we travel and are in a noisy hotel or at Grandma’s house.

  • Jen @ Ginger Guide

    Glad Gracie is doing ok! We use a white noise machine still in Sully’s room. It’s not up very high at all but it’s enough to keep him asleep. Of course he’s also on ear infection number 4 since January. Thanks daycare!

  • Michelle

    Yay, so glad Gracie is feeling and hearing better! Tubes really are wonderous things! We had to get them for our Ava when she was six months old because of chronic ear infections. The waiting before the surgery was nerve racking and the hour after the surgery was very hard, but after that she was fine and the tubes have worked wonderfully for a year and a half!

  • Chloe

    Hey Katie, that picture is so sweet! Earaches and infections can be so painfull, so this is so good you have something to help! Are the tubes like grommets? I had those and they do leave scaring but I got behind at school when I was young due to not hearing and people not knowing what was going on. Nowadays I have amazing hearing, long after the grommets fell out. I just think it’s good you’re getting it dealt with so soon! Well done!

  • Jess W.

    So glad to hear the procedure went well! My Zoey is a light sleeper and will wake up when she hears us going to bed or getting up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. We use white noise and it helps! In the winter she has her humidifier going but we also keep an air purifier running at night, simply to drown out other noise that could wake her up. It’s been working really well. Thought maybe you guys could try it if Gracie continues to wake up!

    ~ Jess

  • Mindee@ourfrontdoor

    Yay! So glad it went so well. I don’t think I would have considered the hearing sensitivity afterwards, but that makes sense. If it doesn’t improve, try some white noise in her room. That always helps my kids sleep through anything.

  • Nikki

    Gracie looks so darn cute in her gown! I’m so glad that everything went well, and that she was back to herself in no time!

  • jen

    I hope this really does help her. My daughter who is three now had hers done at 11 months we are on are third set and this set actually is the set that helped. Every child is different so if they dont work the first go around don’t be to shocked. I wish someone would have told me that.

  • PJ

    I had tubes, but as a toddler and because my parents waited a few years, when I learned to speak, I was really loud because I couldn’t hear myself. So hopefully this will prevent that. Although I eventually had to have my adnoids removed because I was still getting at least 1 really bad ear infection a year into college.

  • angela

    We had todo the same thing with our daughter when she turned one. It’s so sad to know they weren’t hearing 100%…but makes you feel like a great mommy when you get it fixed!

  • Whitney

    Thank you for sharing your experience with us! I received my Masters in Eart Oral Intervention Deaf Education. I am an auditory verbal therapist (teach children speech and listening skills) that works with babies birth to three with hearing loss. Ear infections can be very serious and can obviously affect a child’s speech if left untreated. Fluid in the middle ear occurs prior to an infection and lingers even after an infection is gone, can cause up to a 60 db hearing loss. A 60 dB hearing loss means that the child can only hear speech that is very loud. The louder the speech, the more distorted the sounds become, so it is imperative to treat ear infections. Many doctors these days over prescribe antibiotics, and are sometimes hesitant to recommend PE tubes, but if a child like Gracie has chronic ear infections, tubes are the best solution! Thanks agai for sharing your experience and helping other moms to see how quickly the kiddos bounce back!

  • Alisha

    I concur on the noise machine front! We have one for our 2 year old, and it allows us to bang around as loudly as we want during naptimes and at night. Yay for Gracie’s successful surgery!

  • Alyssa

    So glad everything went well. Little Gracie looks pretty pathetic in that hospital gown. I have a picture of Drew in one from when he needed a CT after falling down the stairs, it’s so sad.

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