New York Report

We are home safe from New York!

Chris was already in New York on business, and John and I flew up Wednesday evening. The flight was hairier than usual. I felt strangely flustered throughout the whole thing, which was so odd, considering I've traveled all over the world! First, I left the house and drove five minutes before realizing that I'd forgotten to leave food for the cats, so turned around to rectify the situation. I got back on the road and the trip took a whole hour instead of the 45 minutes I'd thought. I parked at one of those "park and fly" places near the airport and felt pressured as the bus waited for me. The driver saw me taking extra time because I was loading a baby, but she didn't do anything to help. Finally, a nice older gentleman--a customer--got off the bus to help me, which then got the bus driver scrambling. Anyway, because I felt flustered, I totally forgot to bring John's car seat with me! I called Chris from the airport and, after considering different options, we decided that Chris would simply buy a new car seat in New York before picking me up at the White Plains airport. I was so flustered while at the airport that I kept being overwhelmed by a sickening feeling that I'd forgotten John somewhere, so I'd gasp and look down at my chest only to see John snug in his Ergo. I wondered if that is how it feels to have some forms of obsessive-compulsive disorder!

The security lines were the longest I'd ever seen at the Atlanta airport, so I would have nearly missed my plane had it not been delayed 90 minutes due to terrible weather all along the East Coast. To top it all off, when I arrived, the gate agent told me that the plane had been oversold. As she had me stand there for 30 minutes, hoping to get a seat, you can imagine the speech I was writing in my head about how my son had surgery in the morning and I had purchased my ticket two weeks ago and we were not going to be the ones to suffer because of the airline's despicable practice of selling more product than it has to offer. Ultimately, I got my seat without having to deliver my speech.

Thankfully through all the chaos of four delayed flights stacked up at my gate, John is now old enough that he really enjoyed sitting at the gate window and watching the planes and trucks on the tarmac. Also, John got to see a doggy (a seeing-eye dog) and a kitty--of sorts. You see, John has a wild animals book with several big cats in it. I point to the leopard and say, "That's a leopard! He's a kind of kitty." At the gate, John began pointing and saying loudly, "Kitty! Kitty!" He had spotted a woman carrying a faux fur leopard-print coat! John made the same observation about another fur coat at the airport two days later. What a smart boy!

John became very scared when we took off because he was watching out the airplane window. He's never been scared before and I think it was because he has enough cognitive development now to be disoriented by the sudden changing speed and size of the things he was watching out the window. I had to close the window to get him to stop screaming in fear.

The flight itself was fine--John was moderately fussy--until the end when it got really scary. For the last 25 minutes, I've never felt such turbulence in my life. I was so scared that I was audibly praying nonstop Hail Marys till we landed and I didn't care who thought I was crazy. I really thought I might (throw up, then) die!

When we landed, John was actually asleep, so I waited until everyone got off the plane to wake him. The small plane had parked on the tarmac and, without my line of ducklings to follow, I was disoriented in the pitch dark and pouring rain--the air so cold that there was snow stacked on the ground. I bundled John in a blanket and just started waddling as fast as was safe across the icy tarmac, calling out through the rain to any worker walking by, "Where's the door?! Where's the door?!" Obviously, I finally found my way indoors and Chris picked us up.

Here is a photo from Wednesday morning, on our way to breakfast. Chris had parked by this wonderful wall of icicles.

John at breakfast:
Showing us his nose. He always squinches his nose when he points to it.


Many, but not all of you, heard from me that John was finally diagnosed with a Type 4 Posterior Tongue Tie and a too-tight superior labial frenum. This explains our many, painful nursing difficulties in the early months, John's earlier reflux, and his almost total inability to swallow solids. The correction is a simple frenectomy, but so few doctors these days know how to diagnose and then properly correct a posterior tongue tie that we decided to fly to New York to see two experts.

John in the waiting room of the doctor's office:

After two weeks of a serious case of nerves about John's upcoming procedure, I was graced by God with great calmness during the actual event. John was given Versed to calm him and prophylactic acetaminophen, numbing gel, and two shots of Novocaine before the doctor used a laser to revise the two too-tight frenums. For the three-minute procedure, I sat back in a dental chair holding John along my body with Chris at our feet. John was nursing within ten seconds of the laser being turned off and it took ten or fifteen minutes to calm him down from being restrained.

All was well and we left with doctor's instructions to follow John's lead concerning eating solids. Food would not further harm the wound, but might make him sore, in which case John would let us know. Chris and I stopped to grab some lunch to eat in the car so we could avoid dragging John into a restaurant. It was only 30 minutes after the procedure when John began vigorously making the sign for EAT at me because he wanted some of the pepperoni off my pizza. I was nervous and did not want to give him such a food so soon! But he kept signing and the doctor had said it was okay to try, so I let John eat.

And eat he did! In one sitting, John ate three slices of pepperoni, two bites of cheese, and two bites of soft cookie! He has never eaten like that in his little life! Normally when he "eats" pepperoni, for example, he tears it into a zillion small bits, chews on them, and spits them out. This time he ate each slice by taking large bites--four per slice--and chewing them well, then swallowing. Here is a photo of our sweet boy eating and you can see that he's still ever so slightly dopey from the Versed:

After his feast, John fell asleep for a much-deserved nap:

Wednesday night Chris had to fly on to his next (two) cities for business, so John and I managed on our own that night. He was irritable and fussy from a sore mouth, but nothing some infant pain reliever and distractions from Mama wouldn't solve. Here is John asleep the next morning (yes, you caught me not bothering to change him into pajamas).


Bed hair!


On Thursday morning, John and I were without a car and I thought it was a good idea to walk the one block to the diner across the street from the hotel for breakfast. I had known in advance that the weather would reach a high in the 20s on Thursday, but hadn't wanted to haul along my heavy coat for how little time I would be spending outdoors. Who knows how cold it was early on this morning as I trudged through the snow, but as I began to wonder if the cold air filling my sinus cavities could actually cause my head to explode I realized that maybe I shouldn't have gone for that little walk. (Never fear: John was entirely bundled up in multiple layers, heavy coat and hat, and a blanket shell. It was just Mama who was stupid-cold.)

We got to the cute, tiny White Plains airport by taxi cab. The flight was our best ever! John fell asleep about two minutes after take off (I had closed the window so he wouldn't be scared). He was sitting in my lap while I read him a book and he simply leaned back, closed his eyes, and was asleep! He stayed asleep until ten minutes before landing, when he woke up drowsily and peaceably, never letting out a squeak for the entire flight. Here is a self-taken photo:


John and I are so very glad to be home after our 48 hours in New York and we look forward to Chris joining us soon. Chris and I don't think John's frenectomy will be a magic fix, but we do hope and think it will set him on the road to age-appropriate eating. I, for one, am very excited about that!