Slumber Party in the Hospital

Patrick was born with a bilateral inguinal hernia, but we had to wait until he was over 8lbs to schedule the surgery to repair it. Fortunately, we were able to schedule the surgery before I needed to return to work.

This morning, Patrick ate his last meal at 6:00 AM and began fasting for his 12:00 hernia surgery. Andy and I were dreading the fasting since the little guy likes to eat pretty much constantly in the mornings. We were preparing ourselves for a meltdown.

Patrick surprised us by sleeping until almost 9:00 AM and being a total champ all morning. We arrived at Fairfax Hospital around 10:15 and began the pre-op procedures.

Patrick and Dad heading to the Surgical Center Check-In

They weighed him (10 lbs!), took his blood pressure, and measured the oxygen levels in his blood.

Usually, the pulse oximeter is placed on your finger, but because he's so tiny,
it was just clipped on Patrick's whole foot.

We changed Patrick into some hospital-issue jammies. They are *huge* on him!

We had about an hour to spend with Patrick as we waited for the pre-operation chats with the surgeon and anesthesiologist. The nurses don't usually have such tiny patients, so we had several people poke their heads in to look at Patrick. It was a bit of a challenge to keep Hungry Linn quiet, but it wasn't nearly as bad as we had expected. It was difficult to hand him over to the OR nurse, but after quick kisses on the head from Andy and me, Patrick was off to surgery.

Enjoying some pre-surgery snuggles with Dad.

About an hour after they took him to the OR, the surgeon came out to tell us that Patrick's surgery went really well. Seeing our little guy in recovery was a little tough for both of us. Patrick looked so tiny in his bed, and his little squeaky cries were heart breaking. Fortunately, our NICU time helped us learn all about the monitors, wires and tubes that would be attached to him, so we weren't worried when we saw him connected to so many things.

All tucked in, ready to spend the night.

Since he is so young, Patrick has to stay overnight for observation. So, once again, he is checked into the Pediatric floor. So far, he's been pretty groggy and a little cranky. I lost the rock-paper-scissors game and will be spending the night here with him. (The last time he was on Peds, Andy spent the night and didn't get any sleep between waking to feed Patrick and waking whenever the other baby in the room was crying.) It's now 7:00 and the little guy is sleeping soundly next to me. Hopefully no one will take the other bed in the room and we can get a little rest tonight!