What I can tell you is that when people warned us that he would "scream" when he woke-up from the anesthesia I don't think we realized the extent of the screaming we would face. Normally Asa does not scream. In fact the only time I really remember him screaming is the first night of an ear infection or when he had to get those antibiotic injections. But in both cases the type of screaming was different, it had a sort of frantic, 'I'm in pain, make it stop' sort of quality to it ...
The waking up from anesthesia scream is entirely different. It's more guttural. It's a cry that sounds angry and scared and he was inconsolable. The first five minutes were made of up of a bucking but semi-limp baby screaming without stopping. The next five minutes he was fully in control of his body again and was extremely angry, slapping away offerings of juice or water with fury. The following five minutes he was clamped on to me like a baby monkey hanging on for dear life, occasionally stopping the screaming to whimper and sniffle and do those big intakes of breath that we do when we've been near hysteria for so long that we're bordering on hyperventilating. The following five minutes were snuggles mixed with infrequent but intense bursts of screaming.
At this point we dressed him and headed down to the car. We paced the parking lot for a good ten minutes making sure he was calm before even attempting to put him in his car seat, and apparently ten minutes was not long enough. I've never struggled with him like that but thankfully, we had planned ahead and brought his favorite food, which Jeff very wisely started feeding him while they both sat in the backseat of the car. After another ten minutes, we called it quits and decided that he was just going to have to cry for a bit and then (hopefully) fall asleep in his car seat while we battled rush-hour traffic to get home.
Fifteen minutes (and four miles) later, he was out. And for the first time in our lives, Jeff and I did what so many parents before have done, we drove around and around and around for the next hour and a half to ensure the baby stayed asleep. We tooled around neighborhoods looking at the architecture and trees of the nicer, older areas of Alexandria. We ran a couple of errands, Jeff slowing the car just enough for me to jump out and in safely so as not to wake the baby ... We drove and drove until little man opened his eyes and then we knew it was time to go home.
Once we got home he was fine, he had just needed to sleep it off. Asa was back to his normal happy, silly, sweet and cuddly self. Playing with his toys, climbing on and over Midnight, totally healthy and normal with no ear infection in sight. It turned out to be a fantastic day and well worth the hour of screaming to know that he should stay healthy for the foreseeable future. But fair warning to parents who have to put their kids under for ear tubes, when they warn you that they will be "grumpy" or "irritable" or "fussy" when they wake up, remember this story and plan for an hour of angry baby-rage unlike anything you've seen before and be sure you gas tank is full. And then plan for one of the most pleasant family afternoons you've had in a long time and enjoy the wild roller coaster of parenting a baby.
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