Surgery Day

We came up to Portland yesterday and stayed the night at Matt's dad's house (Grandma & Papa's). They have the kids today. Our check in time was 10 am with a scheduled surgery time of 11:50. His last feeding was at 6am. I had been so nervous about the long wait from then until noon. At 7.5 mos he's ready for solids, but not eating what I offer, so he'd been waking up every 2.5 hours lately just STARVING. I imagined this being a very hard morning. Last night, in an attempt to ease this situation, I decided to put cereal in his bottle and I think that helped. He slept a 5 hr stretch and still wasn't very hungry at 6 am. He missed his morning nap with all the excitement and was fussy and tired, but not screaming at all while we waited in the pre-op room.

Brianna, my sister, and my mom (Grammy) took turns holding Sean while the various nurses, anesthesiologists, our surgeon and her resident looked at Sean and asked us questions. They were all really great and playful. He weighs 18 lbs 7 oz today. I changed him into a tiny hospital gown with pink elephants.

We handed him to the anesthesiologist at "the kissing corner" at 12:10 p.m. I had imagined this moment so many times and felt the emotion well up. But when it came time, I suddenly remembered my promise to Sean Michael to be present with him and that he could count on me. At the las minute it occurred to me that it would be better for him to see my smiling face than a worried or sad face as he was handed to virtual strangers. I told him the anesthesiologist's name and said "Ready?" then, with a swinging motion, "one...two....threeee!" and he landed in her arms with a giggle. He was smiling excitedly at me over her shoulder as she carried my precious baby down the hall to operating room #3. Phew!

Later we received a ph call letting us know the surgery began at 1pm.

The four of us waited in the lobby at Doernbecher for Jessica. I met jess through a mutual friend. She is a mom of three and lives in the Porltand area. Her baby, Liam, was born in January at home and "surprise" he has a unilateral cleft lip and palate. It turns out Jessica and I have so much in common and lots to talk about. She has totally inspired me. she arrived wearing a buton that said, "Team Liam". Check this out http://www.onetruemedia.com/otm_site/view_shared?p=850254656d293fa610beec&skin_id=1603&utm_source=otm&utm_medium=text_url


At 4pm the nurse called to say they are wrapping up and that we could expect to talk with Dr. kuang within an hour and a half or so.