Our poor Spencer boy

All of Spencer's life his has been a snorer. Honestly, from the time he was an infant he snored, and being that he was my first child I didn't think anything of it. Until two years ago when a doctor asked me how bad his snoring was at night. How could they possibly know about his snoring? I let the doctor know that he snored quite loudly at night and asked why he would even question this. He said it was because Spencer has very large tonsils. He went on to ask lots of questions about Spencer's sleeping, snoring, breathing, eating, even his behavior. At that time, yes his snoring was bad, but he didn't seem overly tired. He was a great eater, he loved running around and didn't seem to have any problems with his breathing or behavior (have I ever mentioned how Spencer is an angel child?). But slowly things have gotten worse. Around 6 months ago we noticed that Spencer would occasionally stop breathing between snores. Nothing too long, maybe 10-15 seconds, but we took him to get checked out anyway. The doctor said that he was a candidate for a tonsillectomy because of the size of his tonsils (they literally touch in the back of his throat. I would compare them to the size of a ping pong ball, one on each side of his throat), but it wasn't completely necessary at this point because his sleep apnea (periods of not breathing during sleep) were not long enough. A couple of weeks ago things started to get worse and the length between snores got longer. We took Spencer in on Tuesday and they decided that he should get his tonsils and adenoids out today. I wish that I would have taken our camera with us to take a picture of him in his surgery gown because he looked so cute. All the nurses kept walking by and smiling (even though you could see sadness in their eyes for Spencer). The doctor said that the surgery went really well. When he came out to talk to me afterward he said Spencer definitely needed to get them out and that he will sleep much better now. I almost started crying when I went to see him after the surgery. He was still very sleepy and looked so helpless. When he did finally wake enough to talk he asked me when they were going to take out his tonsils. I let him know that they had already done it and Spencer with a half smile let me know he didn't feel a thing. How grateful I am for that! All of Spencer's nurses kept talking about how well Spencer did and what a happy, easy-going boy he is (I could have told you that). He is doing well tonight. In a little bit of pain, but I think he still has some of the anesthesia from the surgery, so I can only imagine it will get worse. The drive home from the hospital today was weird. Normally in the car Spencer can't stop talking, but today he was very quiet and has been all day. Talking is the one time that he says that his throat does hurt. We will keep you informed on his progress, but everything went well today and can only imagine that it will stay that way.