Eve of the Surgery

Tomorrow morning, at 7:30am, Henry will undergo his surgery.  Chad, Henry, and I will report to Doernbecher's at 6am.  I suspect that the hour and a half prior to handing little Henry off will be both a total blur and incredibly gut-wrenching.  Just hope the sweet little man is more sleepy and snuggly than hungry and pissed.

The loving, hard work of his daycare teachers (and maybe a little of the OCD hand washing of his mother) have really paid off.  Henry went to bed tonight with absolutely no runny nose, no cough, and no fever.  Whew!  I can't imagine having to postpone the surgery and go through the steeling-up process all over again.  Thank you so, so much for helping to keep Henry well (Billie, Brooke, Jaime, and all).

In my very best Snow White voice, I told Henry's brothers tonight that Henry would be going to the hospital for a couple of days and that when he comes home we must be very careful not to touch the "red line" that he'll have on his head.  Avery smiled brightly and replied, "Well, then I will kiss him on his cheeks and not his red line!"  Riley just meowed at me.  Gotta love 2 year olds.

My Mom is here with us for the week to help keep the older boys' routine normal.  Today especially, it has been a huge help to have her here.  Chad and I have struggled to keep from going to that dark place of worry.   Chad managed to stock the house with enough groceries to feed an over-wintering army and I washed every piece of laundry not currently on someone's body.

The surgery is anticipated to take 4 hours.  Dr. Kuang will come talk to us once Henry is taken into recovery.  While we wait, we'll be given a pager in case we leave the waiting area.  You can't help but visualize handing over your precious baby and being handed, in exchange, one of the blinking coasters they give you at Outback Steakhouse.

Can't stand thinking of handing him over.  Can't wait to hear Dr. Kuang say that he did great.  --Tina