Blood Stains

This little sweetface got blood on my National Fragile X Foundation t-shirt today.

The nurse called me to go back to the recovery room, because AJ was starting to wake up.  Once I was sitting next to him, however, he settled back into the pillow and snoozed away, despite the powerful, fluorescent lights and the nurse's and my conversation that we didn't bother to whisper.

Finally, after a good half hour, he stirred, and sat up quickly, whined, and threw himself at me.  And I held him, of course, though it meant letting him press his bloody nose into my chest.  Because that's what you do when your baby is sad and confused and emerging from his anesthesia slumber. (His nose bled a little from the breathing tube.)

A few hours earlier I'd rocked him for a long time, while he slowly settled into the medication he'd had to get the process started.  These boys are eight - I hadn't rocked him like that in a long, long time. It was nice.  He's still my baby, my little momma's boy.

He whined and fussed for awhile, snuggling into my shirt, and then started to sing along to the Yo Gabba Gabba song I had set up on the iPad.  That's how we knew he was starting to be "himself" again.

All things considered, the boys' dental surgeries went smoothly today.  Both got their teeth cleaned and sealants applied, a few cavities filled, and AJ had a baby tooth extracted.

I awoke Zack this morning at 5:15, and the weirdest part wasn't that it was so early but that I was waking him.  I can count the number of times I have had to wake Zack on one hand.

"Come on, kiddo," I whispered, holding onto the hope that I could get Zack up and dressed without waking AJ.

"No?"  Zack said, ending the word with the upswing tone of a question like he so often does.  As if he's pleading.

"Yep, time to get up and get dressed - you're going for a ride with dad this morning."

"No?  No dad.  No?"  Zack turned away from me and pulled the pillow over his face.  So like a typical kid!

And Zack did terrific through the entire procedure - making all my worry and concern completely fruitless (like time worrying is ever beneficial).  He was a rock star throughout all the pre-op procedures, almost completely cooperative, he didn't give the anesthetist or the dental surgeon any trouble, and he woke up in recovery quickly and without trouble.

Well, more or less without trouble.  He didn't have any health complications, but he was mad.  He awoke and sat up immediately and tried to get out of bed.  When the startled nurse attempted to restrain him, he screamed.  Yes, he went from unconscious to screaming in a few seconds.  Dad grabbed the stroller, because Zack wanted to sit in it immediately.  Because to him, that's one step closer to getting to go home.

Later the nurse laughed about it, telling us and a couple of other nurses and the surgeon that she'd never seen a child wake up so fast and furiously from anesthetic.  I think they kind of expected his twin to follow suit, but AJ is his own person, and does things his way.  He snoozed, woke more gradually, and blotted his nose on my shirt.