So long Tonsils and Adenoids!

Being a daycare kid D has had his share of illnesses!  Tons of ear infections his first year, had back to back strep this fall.  I was told that when he starts school he will never be sick.  He did snore... as loud as Andy.  Even while awake he would snore and breathing out of his mouth so much he'd drool.  I mentioned it to our doctor who sent us to an ENT.  After a quick appointment we scheduled surgery for May 6.

The pre op appointment went ok.  You never know what D you are going to get, the one that is like velcro on my leg or the one that walks in like he owns the place.  Sadly Akron Children's Hospital experienced velcro Dylan.  The closer it came he would ask questions like, "Are they going to use tiny scissors?  Are they going to slam dunk my tonsils in the garbage?"

We were excited to be in the hospitals brand new building that opened the day before.  It was so new they were cutting zip ties off the cords in his room!  Dylan was very nervous, didn't even want to put on the PJs.  I instantly began to tear up, this was going to be a fight to the end!  The Child Life Specialist touched my arm, I said a prayer and tried to pull it together.  They ended up giving him medicine that calmed him and had an amnesia effect.  Andy asked him if the medicine made him toot, and he quickly blamed it on the anesthesiologist!  He was so loopy he insisted on riding the bed sitting up instead of laying like the nurses wanted.  As I watched him sway back and forth on that bed while the nurses tried to keep him on it, as soon as he was out of sight the tears poured out that I had held back earlier.          

The surgery was surprisingly fast and before we knew it we were headed back to recovery and could hear screaming...  This is where our sitcom like experience began, Dylan was hysterical!  (No surprise, I react the same way from anesthesia.  I mortified my mother when my wisdom teeth came out.  "WHERE AM I??  WHY AM I HERE??")  D's poor nurse looked relieved that backup arrived.  I tried to get him, he was kicking and thrashing with cords everywhere.  Shortly into Andy's attempt, he yells, "I'm sweating!"  My turn again while Andy walked out of the room to cool off.  Never had he used the word "ouchy" in his life that was all Dylan could say while trying to stick his fingers in his mouth!  That resulted in him throwing up and my screaming, "OH SH*%!"  While I'm assuming he was still fanning himself Andy yells from the hall, "LORI YOU NEED TO RELAX!"  The nurses quickly gave D some morphine and he fell asleep.  We left our mark on Akron Children's and I am sure there is now a "note" in our file.  

Dylan woke up asking if his tonsils were gone, they DELIVERED his meds to our room and we were gone.  He's been off and thought I could send him to daycare today.  Well, I'm home because just as the paperwork said, "Increased pain one week post op" came true as last night was the worst night we've had.  He wakes up crazed, not wanting to take his medicine, not wanting a drink, so when he wakes up its for a while and it's all night long!  I've been told we made the right decision and it'll be best in the long run.  So I am welcoming any advice to get us over the hump!  I come away from this experience: thankful for my healthy babies, thankful for Akron Children's being close when they are not, and praying for the families we passed in the halls that were dealing with much more than large tonsils.        

Kid-less in the Caribbean!

Who are these 2 crazy kid-less people??

Last New Years my in-laws announced they were taking all of us to Sandals Negril after Christmas with no kids.  Entering this family I quickly learned they love vacations!  This trip added to my list that included: Turks and Caicos (Beaches Resort), Hawaii, and Wyoming.  Needless to say we were shocked and panicked finding out we were pregnant the next week.  How are we going to leave a 3 month old and a 4 year old that had been experiencing separation anxiety.  But we did, thanks to my parents and other family that helped with caring for our children.

Years ago I read that Cindy Crawford says her marriage has survived all these years due to vacationing alone.  My parents use to leave us and go to the beach.  As we got closer panic really set in.  I cried when I had to go back to work, soon 8 hours away from them was going to be a week!  My plan was to pump enough so my mom wouldn't have to supplement.  It was bad enough I was leaving Parker, I felt this is the least I could do!  I did the oils, tea everything and successfully pumped her a weeks supply then had to go into overdrive because she actually needed 8 days worth.  D was another story.  He is way into the calendar we have in the kitchen and enjoys keeping up on our daily happenings.  He proudly told his doctor that we were leaving for Jamaica on the 27th and when he turned 27 he was allowed to go.  Knowing he was going to be hanging out with his cousin the whole week eased the pain.  We took them to my parents, celebrated Christmas, put them to bed then left!  I cried a lot.

Rick's Cafe

Jamaica is the place to be!!  The airport was packed.  We had a great bus driver that pointed out all the hot spots between the airport and our resort.  Spots from Cool Runnings, some golf course Oprah owns and what it really means when the sign on the door reads "Beer Joint".  Our room was something out of Crate and Barrel with a view of the ocean.  The vacation started with karaoke and dancing sealing the deal it was going to be a great trip.

The Kerr Crew

Much like the when we went to Sandal's sister resort Beaches the food was amazing!  We found out that the resort Hedonism was right next door, so that added endless jokes and laughs when their guests walked our beach.  We rented a boat to Rick's Cafe on New Year's Eve, dolphins swam next to the boat (which I yelled, "It's just like Sea World!", I'm working on getting out more), we watched the divers at Rick's, then watched the sunset over the ocean.  The resort threw a white party which was so much fun.  The band seemed a little off with the countdown to the New Year since we could see fireworks going off down the beach.  The party ended earlier than announced but not until Shelly begged the dj to play "Poison" for me!  We even found a couple from Columbus that we watched the National Championship game with.  One day my brother-in-law's family made the trip over for the day from Trelawny.  It was awesome to meet and get to visit with Ralston's family.  It was a great trip but like my brother-in-law said before we left he thought this would be the first vacation that he would be excited to get home and he was right!

Our View

Being away from the kids was very hard and I would not suggest it when you have a 3 month old.  It is possible even while nursing!  But with FaceTime and texting we were able to stay very connected.  Now a word of advice when you do FaceTime don't do it while there is a steel drum band playing on the beach that Andy felt our 4 year old needed to see only caused a meltdown with him crying saying, "I want to go there!"  We did enjoy our time alone and being able to relax!  We can't thank our parents enough for making this happen.

I enjoyed myself so much I'm taking another solo vacation to Florida soon to celebrate Andy's oldest sister's milestone birthday.  I'll be giving a full report on how that goes as well as how Andy does being Mr. Mom!  I'm sure it'll be reminiscent of Jack Butler.