Ear tube surgery TODAY!

This morning Cainan had his ear tubes placed without incident! We had to be at the hospital at 6:15 am. It is about a 45 minute drive to this particular hospital, so we left around 5:15 just to be on the safe side. We checked in, and had to wait about 15 minutes before we were called back. The nursing staff couldn't have been nicer. The doaded on Cainan and were really sweet to him. Cainan was so busy exploring the pre-op area that he didn't even complain once about not eating. He was all smiles and easy going - which helped. I don't think they see a ton of children. He had a lot of visitors from nurses and staff while we were waiting our turn. All asking about him, his adoption, his lip, his helmet. And just generally admiring what we already know - how cute he is! The nurse that we had was really wonderful. She used to work at Johns Hopkins - so no wonder! At around 7am, the anesthesiologist came to talk to us about how he was going to put Cainan to sleep and how they were going to try to make this as easy as possible for him. They didn't want it to be traumatic since they knew he was having another surgery on Saturday, and didn't want him to be afraid then. The anesthesiologist was really wonderful with him as well - wanted to hold him and everything! He held him the whole time we talked. At 7:10, they gave Cainan Versed - a medicine he took by mouth to make him sleepy, and "forget" what was going to happen. It started to work in about 5 minutes, and he got heavy in my arms. He didn't move much, but was all smiles. I laid him down on the hospital bed to change his diaper, and he didn't try to get up. I reached for him to see if he wanted me to pick him up, but he was so relaxed, he couldn't even raise his arms. Everyone thought that was really amuzing! That is when they took him back. They like to get him relaxed so that when they took him from me, he didn't really care, and that was true. He went right with them. They took me to the waiting room, and by the time I got a drink and started to read a magazine article, the doctor came to get me. I thought she was going to say she was ready to start, and she was already done! It had been about 15 minutes total. She gave me some instructions and told me that the surgery went well. They drained a lot of fluid from both ears - the right (where his cleft is) more than the left. She said he will be hearing so much better now. They took me back to see him, and there was the anesthesiologist - he was rocking Cainan and had him wrapped in a warm blanket! Very cool. Cainan was fussy, and the anesthesiologist told me that was normal. He would be cranky from the anesthesia for about 20 minutes, and then he would reorient and be fine. He really cried - he wouldn't even let me console him. After about 15 minutes, they let him have a drink, and he stopped. Then he got to have milk and some crackers, and he was back to his happy self! We left about 10 minutes after that. From the time the surgery started to the time we hit the car - 1 hour!! Can't be that. We were home by 9:15. He was happy all day - no problems. He played, and you could really tell that he was hearing better - or at least different. I could call him from further distances away, and he responded quickly. He played with his toys like he was really hearing them for the first time- very neat. He was happy and it was fun. What a good boy.
We had a playdate today with the neighbor kids. It was a lot of fun. They came over to play with Arlington, and even played with the babies some. They are ages 3 and 5, so Arlington played well with both. It was nice to have some company as well, as their mom and I got a chance to chat while the kids played.
Here are two pictures from today