We got ‘em.  The tubers are in.  He only got up once last night.  We are calling it a win people!  The surgery, (if you can even call it that), was quick and painless.  Gus went into surgery at 8:12 and was out and in my arms by 8:36.  It barely gave me enough time to eat a complimentary muffin.

The worst part of it all was the wait.  We had to be there by 6:45.  Gus is not the kind of guy who wants to sit on his mama’s lap and watch the world.  He wants to be a part of it.  The nurses were awesome.  They played with him in the hallway, they gave him a wagon to ride in (and push), and they didn’t care when he licked the windows.

They let me get all geared up and walk back with him.  He thought my getup was hilarious.  He was right.  I looked like the marshmallow man.

So….am I noticing any differences?  I mean they have been in for a total of 24 hours!  Being a speech pathologist, yes, I totally am noticing a difference.  I am going to speech nerd out here, so stay with me.  Prior to surgery I heard these consonant sounds in babbling: m, b, d, and g.  He also roared a lot.  These sounds are all called voiced sounds.  In example, b and p are exactly the same, except for we turn our voices on for b and off for p.  (So b is voiced and p is its voiceless twin.)  Go ahead, give it a try.  As of last night I heard the sounds p and t.  These are both voiceless sounds.  P is just like b, and t is just like d.  (The k and g sounds are a pair too, and I am sure I will hear that k sound soon!)  Does this make sense?  If you know someone with a hearing loss you might notice their speech sounds a little different.  Like instead of “I put it away.”  You may hear “I bud id away.”  Why is this?  Because the voiced sounds, like b and d, are a lot easier to hear than the voiceless sounds.

Along with these new voiceless sounds, he is already starting to babble differently.  He used to do repetitive babbling.  Repetitive babbling is exactly how is sounds…one sound over and over again like “mamama.”  Last night I heard consonant changes in his babbling. “mamapaga.”  This much more closely mirrors our speech as adults.  And in the end that is what it is all about.

Don’t act like I didn’t give you fair warning.  I told you things were going to get nerdy.

Playing a little soccer after surgery

Happy baby!

Would I do it again?  Yes.  It was easy and painless (I think….he didn’t seem to be in any pain) and I feel 100% confident this will benefit him in the long run.  And me too.  Because this is one tired mama.