Poor Sweet Baby

Our poor sweet baby had to have surgery today.

Let me tell you, it was one of the scariest things to walk away from the operating room, knowing darn well that your baby is in good hands but that he is about to be intentionally "cut open", for lack of better words. It's like having your heart taken out, looked over and then someone carefully walks away with it, telling you you'll have it back in a few hours and everything will be fine.

Luckily, everything did go just fine and they were able to fix his inguinal hernia (when tissue or part of an organ, such as the intestine, protrudes through from the abdomen into the inguinal canal in the groin), which is a fairly common type of hernia that affects up to 1 in 20 kids. He was a complete doll baby before, during and after the surgery, which pretty much sums up Lias anyway. He's seriously the nicest baby ever. And the sweetest. Oh, and, of course, the cutest too.

We thought his surgery would be first thing in the morning but it ended being scheduled for 3:30 in the afternoon. All fine and dandy for an adult but you try telling a baby that he can't eat anything after midnight. I snuck him some crackers that morning and fed him jello and I was allowed to nurse him till noon so he made it without too much fuss.

He thoroughly entertained the entire staff with his deep throated constant chuckles (seriously, this kid laughs all the time) and his bum scooting around in his little hospital gown. He decided gowns are not for him, since they gape open in the back and show off his diaper. He even scored a cool balloon and some sweet socks that he wouldn't leave on.

By the way, a dad is the absolute best toy you can bring to entertain a baby that has to wait in the PreOp room for over an hour.

Eventually, 3 anesthesiologists and 4 doctors came and gave him something that made him really woozy. It must have been training day at the hospital because there were at least 10 people in the OR with him and most of them were interns. Check out those heavy eyes.

His head got way too heavy to hold so we had to help him keep it up as we walked him into the OR. When Lias is tired, he gets pretty giddy so it was kinda funny to watch him get woozy and slap happy.

They put the mask on him, he looked around and fell asleep. Not a peep out of him, although I did almost cry. We kissed him goodbye and were escorted out to the waiting room, where we filled up on the free WIFI and trashy magazines for 2 hours. They did all the IVs and stuff after he was asleep and we were gone. They told us that the only complication they had was trying to find a vein for the IV since he was so chunky.

After it was over they came and got us to go back to him and I almost lost it again when I saw this poor little baby all wrapped up in a blanket looking so lost and just wanting his mama. They let me hold and nurse him right away and he slowly came awake and realized he was hungry.

We decided to use the food as a bribe to get him through the hour ride home quietly so we left him to just eat his hand until we got on the road. Note: babies and IVs don't mix - way too many things they can pull out.

He's sleeping it off upstairs now and should be no worse for the wear within a few days. Thank goodness for modern medicine and cute, cute healthy, safe and happy chubby babies.