Cole’s surgery is scheduled between 11 and 12 this morning. Talked to the doctor and he said the risks were less than 1% for all the bad stuff, so we just won’t go there. The surgery should take an hour. He said Cole’s hernia was huge. That’s my boy, go big or go home! There is a good chance he will be intubated again (drats!). He’ll definitely spend the night in Gen Pop. Right now Cole is pissed as he hasn’t eaten since 5 am. Poor guy.

Mental note: When meeting your son’s surgeon for the first time, don’t start by ribbing him. Get to know him first, then joke around with him.
Dr: Nice to meet you. I need to examine your baby first.
Me: Before we start, can you answer me a question?
Dr: Sure.
Me: Any truth to the rumor surgeons are bad at circumcisions?
[everyone's draw drops!]
Oye, what was I thinking? I should have waited till after the surgery to have fun with the surgeon. Sometimes I forget I don’t know every doctor and nurse intimately. I hope he doesn’t take off too much down there. Oh well. More to come.

UPDATE 2 PM: Cole is a champ. Surgery went very well. They didn’t have to tube him at all. Post-op he is calm as can be. We are wondering if its Cole they brought back? Before surgery was hard. Cole was soooooooooo hungry. He was licking Tobie, clawing, and pushing himself towards the breast to just get a little drop of milk. When they brought him to the OR, one of the nurses came back to get his pacifier. He was crying like mad and they wanted to give him his pacifier with a little sucrose. They should start feeding him shortly on 1/3 feed. If everything looks okay, they’ll increase the feeds later. Also, Paige took an 85 cc bottle (normally we are lucky to get 60 cc down). It seems that she is telling us she wants to be fed every 4 hours with a big bottle of milk. So be it! Oh, the nurses commented on how well Cole’s circumcision looks. Sweet!

UPDATE 3 PM: The wheels are in motion. Paige was just given her walking papers. She’ll be discharged Saturday.

UPDATE 11:30 PM: Tobie here: Paige is going to be in the Arizona Republic tomorrow. Yes, the paparrazi found her. The paper came by looking for an adorable child to photograph (and a willing parent to sign the consent), needless to say, Paige was their girl. The story they are running is about a volunteer who has over 6,000 hours at Childrens NICU holding babies. Since Eric summarized his conversation with the surgeon I thought I’d do the same for my interview with the photographer:

Interviewer: So how old are your babies?
Me: Almost 4 months.
Interviewer: Wow! That’s a long time. Why are they in the NICU?
Me: Prematurity
Interviewer: So how long have they been in the NICU?
Me: Ummmm…..almost 4 months.
Interviewer: Oh.

Apparently he thought we had checked in for a procedure. I almost made him cry when he realized we had never been home.

Interviewer: So how often do volunteers (like lady with the 6,000 hrs) hold your babies?
Me: Oh gosh….never! I am here every day, I am not one of those parents that leave my children alone for volunteers to hold.
Interviewer: Oh.
(Eric here: Right, like they are going to publish a picture with Paige and a volunteer after Gabriel, I mean Tobie tells them she would never let a volunteer hold her baby, when the article is about a volunteer who does nothing but hold babies. Way to hold back Paige’s baby modeling career Tob!)

Another Cole update: another pulmonologist came by to check out Cole’s lungs today. To quote him, he said: “Cole’s lungs sound awesome”.

Last thought of the day…something that has been plaguing my mind. Whoever thought of circumcision? Seriously…what guy sat around one day and said, “you know what would look neat?”. And why as a society do we keep this going? God didn’t put the skin there for us to surgically remove. So you’re asking why I agreed to circumcise Cole? Only because he was already numb down there from the hernia repair and the fact that our surgeon told us about 80% of boys are circumcised. Otherwise I think I’d reconsider…. (Eric here: You think this would have been a good conversation for Cole’s parents to have before having this procedure done, oh vey! But to answer Tobie’s question (yes we communicate only via the blog) if I got circumcised, so will Cole and the cycle continues. wait, that’s too much information. This interview is over.)

Paige has her car seat test tomorrow. Stay posted. (Eric here: I went to the hospital tonight to help Paige study for this so called car seat test and realized I have no idea what to do study for. I guess we’ll have to wing it)