Eloise came through surgery with flying colors. It turned out that she had 4 hernias (2 inguinal, not 1 like we thought) and they repaired all 4. We were worried that she was going to be very mad about not eating before the surgery and we were so wrong. She finished her last bottle of formula around 5:30 am, I gave her Pedialyte around 8:30 am and normally she would eat again at 11:00 but she couldn't have anything and surgery wasn't scheduled to start until 1:00 pm.
She was such a sweet and brave little girl. She never cried before the surgery, she just hung out with us and sucked on her pacifier.
They took her back around 12:30 and she was out of surgery by 1:30. When we walked into the recovery area we knew exactly where she was because we could hear those kitty cat screams. It was so good to hear her scream because that meant she was breathing on her own and recovered well from the anesthesia. When we got to the side of crib she was screaming and sucking down a bottle of Pedialyte at the same time. I always tell her that I want her to successful and she has to decide to cry OR eat and she can't be successful at both simultaneously. She proved me wrong.
Seeing some of the toddlers wake up from anesthesia made me so glad we did this while she is still little. It seemed so much more traumatic for them that is was for Eloise. The toddlers were inconsolable. Eloise was just hungry.
She was only in the recovery area for about an hour and then we went up to the room. I was able to carry her while they pushed the crib. For the first 2-3 hours she alternated crying and sleeping but was easily comforted. You would tell she was a little out of it and was trying to eat but kept crying and falling asleep. Basically, I held her from 2:00pm to 8:30 pm only putting her down once for 10 minutes.
Rich went back to the house around 4 pm to take care of the other two. I ran down to the cafeteria around 8:30 pm and felt so guilty in case she woke up. When I got back upstairs she was screaming her head off in the room by herself. Actually, I didn't feel too bad for Eloise but for other babies that didn't have parents there because the nurses are too busy to stay and hold the little ones all night.
This is the epigastric (little bump above the belly button) and the umbilical hernia looked like before....
And this is the after picture with the pressure dressing on her belly button. The incision is around the belly button so she will not have a visible scar. Her face and belly look swollen- probably from all the IV fluid.
She ate about every 2 hours that night so I was up pretty much all night with her. But by morning, I had my happy smiley baby back. In fact, I think they must have turned on her smile button during the surgery because she has been the happiest baby since Saturday morning just smiling and laughing all the time.
We were discharged around 9:00 am and home with the rest of the family by 10:00, just in time for the 11:00 am bottles and back into the swing of things.
While we were at the hospital I saw another mom that I had talked to earlier in the week at the surgeons office. She is a foster mom that takes in special need babies. She has 3 special need children under the age of 6 right now. One of her babies was the same age as Eloise and having one of the many needed surgeries. It really takes a very special person to give so much love and hope to these children that come from terrible circumstances and are facing a challenging future. Her courage to fight for these children was inspiring and a reminder how lucky we are to have healthy babies with a bright and happy future.
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