G-tube: Check!

We're home and settled back in with James minus the NG tube and we're already happy with our decision, mainly because he seems to be doing so well without the discomfort from the tube down his nose and throat.

Snuggled up for the early and snowy drive

Rewind to yesterday morning. We arrived to the hospital early and with a very happy and smiley baby. Even just a week ago he smiled mostly just for mom and dad, and now he'll smile at anyone he can get to look at him. We were brought to a small pre-op room where James donned a tiger gown that we wanted to keep and had lots of visitors from different nurses, the anesthesiologist, residents, and the surgeon.

He didn't stop smiling until the phlebotomist came to draw his blood, then he got pissed. Shortly after that, when the anesthesiologist came in and carried him away for surgery, is when the tears came. I held it together pretty well all morning but something about someone else carrying your baby away made me feel helpless. Then we had to walk to the waiting room and pushing an empty stroller only made me cry more. Ugh. I was doing so well. I just wish it would have been me instead of him. Adam: "Now you know how I felt for both of your surgeries." I don't know how he did it.

We were told the surgery would take about an hour and believe me, I counted down the minutes. An hour went by, then an hour and a half and then I couldn't sit still. This is taking too long, something's wrong, this shouldn't be taking so long. Nearly two hours went by before we were told we could go back to see him. And then there he was, bundled up in a crib in recovery with his pacifier in his mouth like nothing ever happened. He was definitely more sleepy than normal but snuggled right up into mom's arms, and then more tears from me. I was relieved and then felt silly for ever thinking anything could go wrong because here he was, perfect as ever.

We were transferred up to our room and settled in with our sleepy baby who did wake up for a bit to let us know he was just fine.

Photo credit: Papa Hoge

My view from my nap on the couch

I think he was still so drugged up and numb because he seemed perfectly happy - and then the evening rolled in and things got quite a bit worse. His caudal block, similar to an epidural, wore off around dinner time and he instantly went from drowsy to angry, HUNGRY, uncomfortable and inconsolable. This was also about the time that Adam and Papa Hoge left for the evening. Basically I could not put James down in his crib without him screaming and he had to be constantly bounced up and down - and not just a small bounce. A "I'm getting a work out and will be sore tomorrow" bounce (I realize this may be normal for some babies but not for James, give him his pacifier or some food and he's happy as can be).

The nurses did a shift change and luckily our night nurse was a bit more proactive. She paged the resident to see if James could have some sweeties, or sugar water, on his pacifier because the recovery nurse had given him some and he absolutely loved it. Our daytime nurse just said "no, he's not supposed to have anything by mouth" without suggesting we ask the resident and surgeon. Sure enough, they said it was fine. Instant relief from James! Thank goodness, my legs and my arms were getting quite tired.

Sad baby who calmed down after hearing Dad's voice on the phone

This nurse also informed me he had morphine ordered. What?! I was again a little upset because I had been told all he could have was Tylenol. "GIVE HIM THE MORPHINE!" At this point it was nearing his bedtime and I was considering calling Adam and begging for help and for him to return because there was no way I was going to last the night (again, props to you mommas with occasionally inconsolable babies. I barely lasted a few hours). Morphine was put into his IV and instantly he was sound asleep. Thank god! We managed to sleep for a little over an hour that first stretch and then I was up about every hour to adjust or put the pacifier in or rock a little. All in all not a nightmare of a night but it certainly didn't start out well.

This morning we had a whole new baby who was back to his smiley self. He's getting Tylenol every 6 hours and worked his way back up to his normal quantity feeds with no issues. We begged our way out out of the hospital and were home by about 5 pm today. Felt strange to leave the hospital after such a short stay and seems like we're home with a new baby because of the new care required for his circumcision and g-tube site.

MUCH happier

All in all we're relieved it's over with and that everything went well. Going through something like this makes you realize how much you love this little human, someone who just came into our world four months ago today, something that still and will always amaze me.