October 17- Brave Boy

Sterling rolling into surgery. He's so brave.... either that or he doesn't know what's about to hit him. Poor thing.
Sterling made it through his surgery with flying colors. Grammy drove over from Florence this morning to offer an extra set of hands and some much needed moral support. Children’s Health Care of Atlanta (CHOA) was incredible, and we were so pleased with their practices. Once we arrived they put us in a pre-op room where I changed Sterling into his teeny tiny hospital gown, then he feel asleep since it was his regular nap time. I was allowed to carry him down to surgery at 12:30 on the dot- no waiting at all!.
He just barely woke up when I laid him on the operating table, then the anesthesiologist gave him some gas and he went right back to sleep. At that point I left and went to wait for him in the recovery room. After he was asleep they put in his I.V. and spinal block to numb him from the waist down. By 1pm they brought him back to us in his recovery room. We heard him coming down the hall just screaming. Luckily as soon as he was in my arms, he was all better (I was too!). He was allowed to nurse immediately, then fell back to sleep in my arms. The spinal block kept him numb for about 3 hours, and now he’ll take Tylenol with codeine every 4 hours, so he shouldn't have too much pain. We remained in the recovery room for an hour before discharge. Now he’s sleeping the sleep of the just in his crib. The sight of his surgery is pretty bruised and swollen, with several stitches, but he should be doing much better in just a few short days. I’m .just so relieved that everything went so smoothly, and hopefully he won’t need to go through surgery ever again.
Thank you so much to Grammy Linda for making the drive all the way to Atlanta to help out- I can’t begin to tell you how much that meant to our little family. Ellabell came along to support her brother. While we waited for Sterling to get out of surgery Bella had some 'nanas compliments of Grammy. She's grown fonder of bananas since our first experience with them- or perhaps she just liked Grammy's feeding techniques? And thank you to everyone who kept Sterling in his or her thoughts and prayers today, we really sincerely appreciate it.
Such a big IV!

….for such a tiny little boy! I was so pleased with CHOA’s procedures regarding babies. They didn’t even put his I.V. in until after he was given gas to go to sleep. Then he was still so groggy and numb after surgery that he didn’t even worry about the I.V. being taken out.