The golf ball sized belly button before surgery :(
Well, its already been three weeks, but I thought I would post a re-cap and update about Miss Harper's "Belly Button Surgery".
On Dec. 7 of this year Harper had a surgical procedure done to fix an umbilical hernia her developed shortly after birth. These types of hernias are not uncommon and generally don't effect the overall health of a baby. Typically they heal on their own by the time they are 2 or 3, however Harper's had grown to the size of a golf ball and I believe it was causing her some pain. Her doctor, surgeon and I all agreed it was unlikely that the hernia would heal on its own, and even if it did, in the mean time she would be stuck with her intestine protruding out from her little belly.
The day of the surgery (along with a few prior to it) I was a wreck. I knew in my heart everything would be fine, but it is such a terrifying feeling for me to have to put Harper through this. I honestly wasn't worried about the surgery itself, I knew it was pretty basic and I trusted her surgeon, but the scariest part for me was that she would be under a general anesthesia. I anticipated the hardest parts would be letting her go and be put under, and seeing her afterward - I was prepared for a pale lethargic baby, with Iv's and tubes all over the place. I was right in thinking that letting her go would be awful, however our anesthesiologist was great, (the same one who did my c-sec in September) he made us feel as comfortable as we could given the circumstance, and even Harper was giving him big smiles as he talked us through what would happen during and after surgery.
From the time we handed her to Chris, the anesthesiologist, and walked into the waiting room with our little pager, to the time the Dr. McCray came out to tell us she was all done a full hour hadn't even passed yet. He took Justin and I back to the recovery room to see her and I could barely keep myself from running to her. Before they even opened the doors I could hear her screaming, it was such a wonderful sound since I was prepared to walk in on a drowsy drugged up baby. Aside from the fact that she managed to pull out her IV and there was blood soaked gauze wrapped around her arm, she looked amazing! She wasn't lethargic in the slighted and she looked so strong as she tried to fight off the nurse who was bandaging her up! It turned out that they didn't need to give her any drugs to wake her up from the anesthetic which is uncommon and through the entire process her vitals stayed absolutely healthy. Both the doctor and the anesthesiologist said she couldn't have done better.
We were able to take her home that same day only about 4 hours after we arrived at the hospital. She was pretty jumpy and disoriented that afternoon and spent a lot of time screaming and crying. I expected this to go on or at least the next couple days, but the following morning she woke up in the greatest mood and has been perfect everyday since then. Prior to her surgery she was very gassy and fussy and would cry almost every time she pooped. I was hardly ever able to put her down at home and she was waking up several times at night. Since the day after her surgery she sleeps 8 to 12 hours at night waking up only once to eat and go right back to sleep. She doesn't nap much but I don't mind because she is content now to play on the floor or in her swing, I only have to hold her when I feed her and when I just want to snuggle :)
We were SO blessed to have our prayers answered and exceeded! God has been so faithful in
keeping this little girl healthy, even when when I had only been pregnant with her for 6 weeks and the doctor told us we lost her when I had a cyst rupture in my uterus. Thank you Lord for our wonderful little miracle! And thank you to all of you who kept us in your thoughts and prayers as we went through this!
