Well, the worst is over, and it is all up hill from here.  For those of you who don't know about what was going on, I'll explain.  From the time Lily was a baby, I knew that something was wrong – it took over two years for me to convince a doctor to at least let me get her tested.  The tests showed that she had severe sleep apnea, and so last Valentine's Day (when Derek was 6 weeks old) she had her tonsils and adenoids removed.  It was a miracle cure for her.  I thought our sleep troubles were over, but then, at about 6 months he started exhibiting the same signs as Lily did – but even worse.

This time, I was NOT going to be bullied by the doctors – I knew what I was talking about.  I did my research and found out how old he needed to be for the surgery, and then I went in as soon as I could, since I was not going to let my baby suffer for years like his sister did.  Things fell into place, and Derek had his surgery early yesterday, and so now we are on to the recovery. 

The poor little guy had no idea what was going on, unlike his sister, who was totally excited about her surgery.  We got to the hospital at 6am, and I tried to keep him from escaping from the pre-op room by distracting him with Playhouse Disney shows and toys they brought in for him.  (He still made a break for it 3 or 4 times.)  Then they gave him some stuff that made him loopy, and after that he was a little more manageable, albeit more dangerous.

 After the meds took effect, they took him away from me and off to surgery.  It was very hard to focus while he was gone, as you always worry about your baby – no matter how routine the surgery is. 

Luckily, it was quick.  After only 30 minutes I was talking to the doctor, and only another fifteen minutes went by before I got to see him in recovery.  When I got to him, he was screaming and trying to rip out his IV.  Luckily, I was able to calm him down enough for them to get the morphine into his IV, and then he fell asleep on me – which is where he stayed the entire day, with very small exceptions.

I must admit, it was a LONG, HARD day, but there were many blessings along the way.  Some of the things on the good list were:

• Getting to cuddle with my baby boy all day long – especially since he never usually holds still long enough.
• Kevin getting the day off to help with Lily, since I couldn't take her with me.
• A talented and competent surgeon – who the totally made me feel vindicated even more when he told me how incredibly massive Derek's adenoids were.  (I still don't really know what an adenoid does, all I know is that my kids had huge ones.)
• The first counselor in our bishopric, who works in surgery, stopping by before Derek went in to make sure we were okay.
• Wonderful and caring nurses.
• How adorable Derek looked in his hospital gown :).
• Pain medicine for my poor baby.
• The nice ladies who brought Derek some toys to play with.
• Kevin running errands for me, bringing me food, and every other wonderful thing.
• Lily getting to visit, and having her not throw a fit that it wasn't her having the surgery (although, she did wake me up last night saying that she needed to go to the hospital because her throat hurt – he he!).
• Lily talking the nurse's ear off, and watching her try to sleep in the hospital crib while we were waiting for results.
• Silly Derek wanting to eat my chocolate milkshake and french fries, even though he had rejected all other forms of drink that day.  I gave in, but only gave him little bits of the VERY squishy fries.
• Not having to stay the night at the hospital, even though we did have to stay until 9pm.
• Having my baby wake up happy this morning, even though he was in pain.

I sure love my little guy, and am so grateful that everything turned out fine.  He is in a lot of pain still, and will be for a few weeks, but like I said before, it can only get better from here.