I'm SOOOOOOOO Happy!!!

Taylor is having surgery. Now in order to understand why this makes me so happy, I'll have to start at the beginning.

When Taylor was about 6 weeks old, she started having trouble sleeping. Then at about 2 months old she got her first illness. As of today, the sleeping troubles and the sicknesses are still going strong. She is always sick and, if it's something that all the kids get, hers is more severe. As for sleep, sleeping through the night is not something she consistently does. In fact I would say more times than not she wakes up at least once a night. At first we figured the sleeping problems were because she was always sick and it was hard to sleep train her because she was constantly getting something. Then when she hit 2 she started fighting her naps, so we figured that was why she was having sleep problems. As she's gotten closer to 5, we've just felt like something was not right. We do everything in our power to give her the best sleep possible. She goes to bed at 7 pm in a dark room all by herself with a fan running to provide background noise and block other noises. She has a consistent bedtime routine that we follow, and she goes to sleep independently. We've done everything, and yet she still doesn't seem to get enough sleep. Every day she's grumpy at some point in the day if not throughout the day. She's a bit hyper and unruly. She's disobedient; she struggles to control herself. She breakdowns really easily. She lashes out at others. At first we thought this was a mix of a strong-willed child and being in the "terrible twos," but as time continued it just didn't feel right. As we've looked at things, we've started realizing that all of this behavioral and sleep stuff is connected. She is a sleep deprived child, yet we can't figure out why because we've done everything possible to give her good sleep. Most days of her life have been difficult. It's honestly been a roller coaster ride.

Then at the beginning of November my sister had a baby and my mom was helping her out and decided to look through Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. Now this is a book I have (and recommended to my sister). My mom found an entire section on Sleep Problems and Tonsils and Sleep Problems and Allergies. I had never thought to look in there. I read them and all of a sudden everything made sense. I just knew this had to be the answer to it all. Everything they described sounded EXACTLY like Taylor. I'd noticed she'd snored; even recently I'd noticed she tends to just breathe out of her mouth all of the time. I'd noticed she had difficulty falling asleep and was a restless sleeper. All of this plus the behavior problems, the sleep problems, the constantly getting sick . . . according to the book all of it was because of her tonsils and adenoids. It all made sense, and there was a solution to all the struggles we had and were continuing to have with her.

Then I got nervous. There were 2 doctors that needed to agree with me - her pediatrician for the referral and the ENT. I didn't want to get my hopes up and then have them dashed by one of the doctors. I'm very grateful that I researched the problem. By doing that, I knew what things the doctors would look for and I could tell them the symptoms she was showing; plus I also was able to observe her to see if she exhibited any of the other symptoms that maybe I hadn't noticed before.

Before Thanksgiving, we headed to her pediatrician. She thought Taylor's tonsils were big, but not horribly enlarged, but with the sleep and behavioral issues and the fact that she couldn't look at the adenoids, she went ahead and gave us a referral to an ENT. I was so relieved. Unfortunately, I couldn't get an appointment with the ENT until December 8. I was so excited that I'd gotten the referral, so it was horrible to have to wait so long for the appointment.

Well, the 8th FINALLY came. After Declan's appointment, I dropped him and Payden off at my friend Krista's house, and Taylor and I headed to the ENT. Again, I was nervous because I wasn't sure if we'd get the solution we were looking for. Tom had told me the night before to make sure I told the ENT we wouldn't accept anything except surgery. :) I wasn't going to say that, but I was definitely going to be ready to fight for that.

After a long wait in the waiting room, we headed back for some more waiting. Amen to cameras and games on phones because they are what got us through the waiting period with a minimal amount of grumpiness and fits. Finally the doctor came in, and everything went perfectly. There wasn't a need to convince. From my observations, he felt surgery was the best option. He even commented that he could see the typical behavior that comes with tonsil problems in her (she was a bit difficult and didn't want him to look in her ears or mouth or anything). After looking at the tonsils, he said that typically the adenoids would be large as well. Then he asked about her ears. She's had numerous ear infections and been on the verge of being recommended to an ENT for them, so I told him that. He said that if we were going to remove the tonsils and adenoids, he would like to do tubes too if the ear drums were giving her problems so that he could get everything done at once rather than having to do 2 procedures. I told him we were willing to do what he thought was best so that she could be better, and that's when we started talking surgery.

We received all the instructions, filled out the paperwork, did a few hearing tests, received instructions to get lab work done before surgery, and set the date - January 8. I am sooooooo excited and relieved. I almost cried right there in the office.

All the hard moments (which have been at least daily and usually multiple times a day) should stop. The behavior issues and the grumpiness and everything will go away. A friend of mine mentioned a kid she knew who had it done and how his behavior went from horribly awful to the complete opposite. I don't want to get my hopes up, but if this is what will happen to Taylor, I am SOOOOOO happy. I feel bad for the bad times we've had, the trouble she's been in, and everything all because her tonsils and stuff were causing her to sleep poorly, which made it hard for her to behave. We are sooooo excited to finally have the sweet Taylor - the sweet girl we occasionally get a glimpse of. Yea!!!!!!!!!