Bye Bye-Bee Bo!

It is no secret that I was very attached to my special belly button. I was born with a herniated belly button and I loved it. At my 18 month check-up my doctor recommended that I see a surgeon. She was wonderful and told us that she would not perform surgery until I was older and when she could say with confidence that the hernia would not go away on it's own. Well, that day came this summer. My brother had to meet with the surgeon because of a different hernia. While they were there, mommy mentioned that my hernia had not changed and I was getting closer to being three years old. The surgeon wanted to see me again and when she saw me, she determined that my hernia would not be going away on it's own.

At that point, mommy and daddy decided that Oliver and I should have surgery on the same day. The night before the surgery, mommy and daddy decided to make me a cake to celebrate that my old belly button was going away and I would have a new one. I surprised mommy and daddy by proudly saying that I wanted a belly button like Oliver had.

Here is a picture of the cake.

Mommy and daddy sang "Bye bye bee-bo to you" (Happy Birthday tune). Mommy and daddy were going to make Oliver a cake too but felt like "Bye Bye hydroceal" would not really work on a cake. Plus, Oliver could have cared less about his hydroceal:)! I was going to miss my belly button!

We were not allowed to eat anything after midnight so our last meal before surgery was the night before. We had homemade pizza and cake.

We had to wake up at around 4:45 the day of surgery and went to Children's Hospital. When we arrived, we were greeted by a wonderful staff. Everyone was SO nice and made us feel really comfortable. I even got a name bracelet for Blondie who came with me throughout the adventure.

Before the surgery started, the nurses took my blood pressure, temperature and pulse. They also gave us stickers and bubbles to keep us entertained.

Mommy was allowed to come into the operating room with me until I fell asleep. She carried me in to the room and I was given something to breathe in that smelled like strawberries. I played it really cool and was not nervous. I told the people in the room about my cake from last night and then mommy started telling a story about our celebration the day before.

The next thing I knew, I was waking up!

When I woke up, I only woke up briefly and then asked to be held and mommy put me in her arms and held me for almost another hour before I officially woke up. I felt really sick to my stomach. Finally, though, I was ready for a popsicle.

After my popsicle, the nurse put me back in my bed because she wanted to make sure that I could sit up on my own and didn't get sick. I waited a little bit more and then Oliver came out.

True to his personality, he was the quickest person to wake up. The nurses had told mommy and daddy that it might take a while but they rolled him into recovery, took off the breathing mask and he popped up within a minute and asked for his popsicle. After about another hour, we were on our way home! We got to ride in a wheelchair to the car.
It was quite the adventure. Oliver and I are quite the team.