The "Baker" Ears and Tubes for Caroline

Jason and I have fun talking about which side of the family our kids got their traits from....is their red hair from his side or mine? Did Caroline get her outgoing personality from her Aunt Angela?? Is that Ella's laugh or Cal's smile??? Who knows! The one thing that we do know, though, is that they both inherited the Baker Ears. Small Eustachian Tubes are a Baker trait! I had tubes several times as a young girl and to this day, when I see a doctor, I still hear comments about the amount of scar tissue in my ears.

Caden had three ear infections before he was seven months old. Caroline had two before she was six month old. Then, we had months of no ear problems. That abruptly changed for Caroline. She had her three double ear infections over the last month or so. She just couldn't fully recover and it became obvious that she needed tubes.

We scheduled the appointment just as soon as we possibly could. The whole family has been sick with a stomach virus for the last week. This virus prevented Caroline from being able to take her antibiotics. We needed the surgery to clear up this ear infection since Caroline's stomach just couldn't handle the medicine. :(

Our whole goal this week was keeping Caroline hydrated enough so she wouldn't need an IV and could have her surgery. This was easier said than done but thankfully, we can check that goal off the list.

This last Thursday, we woke Caroline up at 5:45 am so we could arrive at the surgery center by 6:00. As you can see, Caroline was not ready to be woken up.
Grammie and Poppa tag teamed Caden babysitting duty. Grammie took the early shift and then headed into work for a meeting. Poppa took over until we returned home.

This is what it looked like outside when we arrived.
We waited for an hour before the surgery. That was way to long for a little girl to wait...especially when she couldn't eat or drink anything. Finally, the doctor came and carried Caroline away. Five minutes later, the doctor was out telling us the surgery was complete and everything went very well. We were relieved.

Here is Caroline after the surgery. She was scared, crying, and had the floppy head of a new born. It was very sad seeing her this way and we struggled to comfort her.
Caroline's monitor.
Here is the surgery center after we left. We totally missed the sunrise. I guess we had other stuff on our minds.
When we got home, Grammie and Poppa had a surprise waiting for Caroline. You can see, Caroline was not yet back to her normal toy loving self.
But after a well deserved nap, Caroline decided to give the new car a try.
This time, she liked it. :)
We hope Caden's ears hold up so he wont need to get tubes like big sis Caroline.