On Friday, we took our baby boy to the hospital for his long awaited circumcision. Under normal circumstances, we would have had him circumcised in the hospital the day after he was born. But the pediatrician who examined Lucas determined that he had a curve and a twist that was caused by extra skin. So she recommended that we postpone the procedure and consult a pediatric urologist. So we waited and saw a specialist and he re-assured us that everything would be ok and that it will be a simple procedure.

There were two things that concerned me during the whole process. The first thing that worried me was that we could not feed Lucas after 12 midnight. His operation was scheduled for 7:30am so he would have to go about 9 hours (including post-op recovery) without milk. He would receive some nourishment through an IV during the procedure, but we knew that it wasn’t enough. Tey fed him at 11:45pm the night before and he went to sleep and didn’t wake up until it was time to go. We left the house around 6:30am and he was in such a good mood. He was laughing and playing with us all morning that I felt bad because I knew that he wouldn’t be like that in a few hours. The other concern was that they were going to knock him out for the operation. With him being such a little guy, there is always a concern when using anesthesia. But that was only a minor concern since I have confidence with the doctors saying they perform this procedure routinely.

So when we arrived at UCI Medical Center in Orange at 6:45am and checked in at the out patient surgery building. Most of the people there were pretty old and I overheard a lot of cataract procedures. Then here comes this little 5 month old baby in an elf outfit to get circumcised. Of course he was a hit with the nurses as he had a few come over and ask if they could hold him. Lucas was still in a jolly mood smiling and laughing with everyone. We changed him into this purple baby hospital gown and he was ready to go. The anesthesiologist consulted with us and reassured us that everything would be fine. Finally we handed the little guy over to his nurse and we waited outside in the lobby. The procedure was scheduled to be one hour.

So Tey and I got a bite to eat and waited in the lobby. We weren’t too concerned about everything and were just talking about random stuff. Then the doctor came out and told us that everything went great and they were bringing him into the recovery room. The doctor said that the circumcision corrected all the extra curving and twisting and he add that “It will look so good that he won’t want to wear any pants!”. So that was good to hear. We would be able to see him in a few minutes.

The nurse came out to get us and led us back to the recovery room where Lucas had the first bed closest to the hallway. He was still in his purple baby gown but was sleeping on the gurney. He had a white cord attached to his toe which we later learned was there to monitor his pulse. He had an IV attached to his left hand and that was connected to his feeding tube. Anytime you have something medical attached to a baby it just looks so scary, but he was doing just fine. They suggested that Tey try to feed him as he was probably super hungry. They had set up a reclining chair next to the bed for us and Tey breast fed him as much as he would eat, but he ended up dozing off while trying to feed. Sometimes he would let out this hoarse sounding cry but immediately fell back asleep once he was on his mommy’s chest.

We were in the recovery room for about an hour and half before we decided to go home. The nurses said he would be grumpy and groggy all day so they suggested we get some Motrin and Tylenol for infants. We would end up giving Lucas some Motrin every 6 hours for the first day or so. We changed him out of his purple baby gown and he started to cry. Again his cry was very rough and loud as we quickly changed him into his regular clothes. On our way home, he looked ok but was groggy. He quickly slept once in his car seat and we were done with the whole hospital scene.

It has been five days now since his surgery and Lucas is quickly recoving. Everything is healing well and he should be fully healed by Chrismas or at the latest, by New Year’s. The pain didn’t stop him one bit as he was still crawling around (or atleast trying to crawl) like crazy. We didn’t really know when he was in pain, but we assumed he was in pain when he would have 5 minute crying spells. That stuff is pretty much over and we are just waiting for his stitches to dissolve and then he will be good as new. Poor kid, it was a rough 3-4 days for him.

If he ever starts to like running around with his pants off, I will have a good story to tell him.