This Won't Hurt, I Promise

So I know that it is quite astonishing that I am putting up a new blog post so soon but many of you have been wondering how the boys' surgery went and how they are recovering.  For those that don't know, both boys had to have some "minor" surgery to correct a small birth defect.  To spare the boys any possible future embarrassment (having learned from the many idiots that post stuff online and then are amazed that it is still there to haunt them several years later), I don't want to go into exactly what the surgery entailed.  While this was "minor" surgery that was done on an outpatient basis, the recovery has not been "minor".

Julie and I foresaw that it was going to be rough having both boys recovering at the same time so we arranged for Nadia to spend the week with my mom in Maryland (THANK YOU MOM!!).  And boy are we glad we did because the boys were a mess for the first several days after the surgery.  The surgeries went well and the doctor even thinks that he was able to bypass the need for Andrew to have a second surgery (which was considered likely).  They have been getting better each day but I still describe the situation as periods of calm interrupted by periods of extreme hysterics.  To make matters worse, Andrew has decided that he does not want to take medicines anymore which has resulted in me holding him down three times a day while Julie force feeds him medicine...lots of fun!

The other challenge has been sleeping.  Since the surgery on Monday, the boys have slept through the night one time.  While I know that we used to get up three times a night to feed three infants, those days are way behind us and we are not adjusting well to the "get up in the middle of the night to comfort your screaming child who is in pain but doesn't want to take medicine and would rather play with toys at 2 am" routine.  So we're keeping our fingers crossed that tonight will be the night that things get back to normal.

We want to thank everyone who has helped us by assisting with the kids, bringing us meals, and praying for us during this time.  While I was explaining the situation to someone the other day they made the comment that we are very blessed to have such a caring and committed community around us...and we agree!!

Just because I can't do a blog post without a few pictures and/or videos, here are a few to make you smile :)

I'm ready to go to Grandma's!!

"This is not nearly as comfortable as my infant seat"

"Tell me again why I have to wear this gown?  It doesn't even cover my butt!"

If only we had access to anesthesia at home...

Ryan enjoys his non-watered down juice...minutes before he threw it all back up...

"Anyone get the plate number from the truck that just ran me over?"

 

 The boys had breathing tubes down their throats during the surgery which resulted in their voices sounding like someone who had been smoking a carton day for the last 30 years (as evidenced by this video of Ryan as he was obsessed with the light attached to his toe).

Both boys made some hilarious faces as they were recovering from the drugs and anesthesia.  We were able to capture a couple good ones from Andrew in this video.  Pay particular attention around the 1:10, 1:25 and 1:42 minute marks.