SHE'S A SUPERSTAR!

Cora threw us for a loop yet again. We expected the worst, and she gave us the BEST! Honestly, I couldn't have been more proud of her, and more thankful that the morning went so well. In fact, everything went much better than I expected, starting last night...

I nursed her to sleep at 8:00pm and she stayed asleep without a single random wake-up (she normally calls me back upstairs once or twice before she fully settles in for the night). I gave her a "sleep feed" at 11:40 (before her midnight cutoff) to fill her belly, and she slept all the way through to 5:50am when I had Jay bring her downstairs and load her into the car (I was worried she'd be mad at me for not feeding her if I was the one to wake her). She barely made a sound throughout the process. Though she did jabber a bit once we were on the road.

She was absolutely perfect while we registered and waited for surgery. The only time she fussed was when the nurse came to take her vitals (she has white-coat syndrome, and doesn't like strangers touching her, especially medical strangers). Eventually she fell back asleep, and slept through my chats with the doctor and anesthesiologist.

When they took her to surgery, they let her keep her blanket and paci, and she only fussed for a few seconds when I handed her over to the sweet nurse (I guess she liked her). She was wide awake, sitting up in her arms, and didn't make a peep all the way down the hall. She was in and out of surgery in less than 15 minutes, then they kept her in recovery for 15 minutes afterwards. Christina stopped by after her shift change and kept Jean and I company during the wait while Cora was out of our room. The recovery nurse later came to check on her and saw me nursing her, and said "Now I know why she didn't want her glucose water, she was holding out for the real deal!" Apparently, Cora refused the bottle of sugar water and the nurse thought it was funny because usually even breastfed babies will at least take a few sips. Cora, on the other hand, pushed it away and fussed until they gave her the paci. Then she was fine. Her ENT told me that he cleaned a LOT of "glue" out of her left ear, and some out of her right, and that both ears were "thickened". The tubes went in easily (of course) and he expects her to feel like a new women in a few hours. So good news all around! She'll be on one more round of antibiotics to clear the remainder of the infection, and she has some ear drops to go along with it.

She was completely calm and alert when they brought her back to me, and she nursed well. Jay arrived shortly after, and she reached for him right away. She definitely wanted some Daddy snuggles. And you know that made him feel good!

And then I got her back for another nursing session. And she played some. And she smiled and laughed when we tickled her. (She had lost her gown in recovery... she pulled it off! Hence her nakedness.)

She got a little fussy again when the nurse came back to check her vitals before she could be discharged. Other than that, she was just a perfect little angel today. No crying. No drama. Who'd have thought? It certainly isn't what we expected from her. Or what we expected following our experience with James!

She fell asleep on the way home and has been peacefully napping for over an hour already. Hopefully we'll have a quiet day of recovery here at home, and she'll be good as new this weekend!