Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Family Jewels

After many months of anticipation, the day has arrived.  Mari and I woke in a fog at 4:45am (normal wake time is 5:51am for me and 7:30am for Mari) to get ready and then woke up Cohen and Finn at 5:15am (normal wake time is 6:00am).  We downed a breakfast taco and grabbed a cup of coffee for the road down to Texas Children's Hospital while our loving neighbor, Becky, held down the fort with Noah and Sophia.  

Cohen: "You're gonna do what?!"
Finn: "No way man! You're not doing that to me!"

Cohen and Finn had their circumcisions scheduled this morning so the poor little guys couldn't eat or drink anything after midnight, but they hung in there like champs.  Noah already had his done during his final ostomy surgery.  Cohen also had a missing jewel that they weren't even sure existed.  I have to brag because these little dudes rocked!  Finn's surgery was first, and he too woke in a fog after anesthesia but got going quickly, sucked down a much needed bottle and started playing around.  We were pretty stressed about Cohen's treasure hunt, but God answered our prayers and found it way up in his abdomen.  Cohen was pretty groggy after surgery as well, but after a couple of Pedialytes and a full bottle he was back on track.   We finally got home at 12:30pm to eat lunch and then face the long stretch of the day where the babies are up from 2-6pm.

Momma helping Cohen feel right at home

Unfortunately, we had to wait this long because Memorial Hermann does not do inpatient/NICU circumcisions and by the time they were discharged, they were over a month old and would require anesthesia; most MDs prefer not to put an infant less than 1 year old under anesthesia.  For anyone with a baby boy in the NICU who wishes to have him circumcized, push harder than we did and look into outside sources who the hospital may allow to come in and perform the procedure.

Finn throwing back some juice in the recovery room


We are glad this is behind us though the recovery is still ahead - healing for the boys and sleep for us:)

Big thanks to Becky and the great staff at Texas Children's!!!!

17 comments:

Shannon said...

Ok looking at those pics brought back tons of memories for me. Finley is the "proud" owner of two of those beautiful Texas Children's short sets. And that recovery room and pedialyte brought back memories too. I am so glad they found Cohen's "jewel". As you know, both of Finley's were way up like that. I hope they do great and sleep well tonight for y'all. Texas Children's is great and their urologists are too. Hugs!

Shannon, Finley and Kieran

Alaine said...

Yeah-one day of prayers answered! Sounds like everything went as smoothly as it could - hope you can catch up on rest a little bit and the boys too! Much love and hugs to each one!

Misty said...

I am glad that all went well and pray for a quick recovery and a easy healing process for everyone!
Glad all the "jewels" are back where they need to be!
Wishing ya'll a really good nights sleep too!
Misty

Suzanne said...

awww...never easy to watch your babies go into surgery--but i'm SOOOO glad everything went well, and that mr. cohen is in fact, completely endowed! :) love you guys...miss you!

GibsonTwins said...

so glad everything went well with their surgeries- the anxiety of not feeding them past midnight always got to me during our 3 surgery stunt last summer. our nicu actually did do the circumcision for our boy twin thankfully. i never would've thought anything else

Anonymous said...

Glad to hear all went well with the boys. They will be up and running in no time. My oldest son was a NICU baby and had to wait for his circumcision. The first one he had didn't do well so he too had to go back. After his surgery we went to eat and he wanted to get up and play on the toys. Amazing how they can go through that and not be fazed.

Terri said...

glad to hear that everything went so well!

Pam said...

Oh poor babies, glad they got through all this and everything went well........for you parents too. They are just so cute, can't believe all the hair they have, makes them look older than they are! Keep up the good work, and again, they are just precious! A friend in East Texas, Pam.

Anonymous said...

Good job Boys!!!! We will see you in 2 weeks!! Jenn & Ansley

Elyse said...

Glad everything went great!
~Elyse~

jag said...

So glad your boys are doing well after surgery. Our prayers are with them as they heal. Also want to thank you for the advice. We are expecting 3 boys and a girl and had no idea that the procedure might be a NICU issue. We will be looking into it. Take care:)

Jac Tubre said...

You guys are so funny. I totally thought Chris was getting a vasectomy when I read the title!!

We had the option to get the boys circumcised in the NICU, but we opted not to because they were so little and fragile and I didn't want anything to happen that may delay their homecoming...boy was that stupid. We had to go through the same ordeal you did, minus the anesthesia (they only used a local numbing cream…poor boys) and wished we had it done when they were in the hospital, though it doesn't sound like that was an option for you.

Love yall,
Jac

Moni Graf said...

Glad the ol' snip and clip went well! I wonder if they'll noticed something's missing....

We were fortunate enough to have our 3 boys circ'd while in the NICU - on Christmas day, no less. Merry freakin' Christmas, right?! I think it was more traumatic for us.

That pic of Chris in the previous post DOES look so much like the kiddos! Happy belated birthday, by the way.

Good luck with the recovery and getting everyone back on the routine.

Love from KS,
Moni

Anonymous said...

ok this might be a dumb question, but what was stuck up inside Cohen's abdomen? I thought the circumcision procedure just trims the foreskin from penis??? Please explain if you can. Thanks.

Fulton Quads said...

I am so happy that they handled the surgery so well. Our little guy did not have his in the hospital either but that was because Daddy wanted the doctor that delivered them to do it & he only had priviledges for my C Sect & not for a circumcision. SO little B had his done almost a month later at the Doc's office on Valentines Day! They said they did not usually do it so late but because he was a preemie they allowed it. Daddy took him so I did not have to hear him scream. No anesthesia just numbing cream. Oh I am so glad we only had 1 boy & 3 girls!!

Twinmommy2boys said...

Glad everything went ok. Our NICU also did circs on our boys in the NICU at a month old. I did't know that some wouldn't.

Tamara Mitchell said...

I absolutely love reading your journey! I can't remember now where I first found your blog but have loved following your story.

I got awarded the "Mommy Blog"...still trying to figure out who to show the award...but you are one of the gals that I am passing the award onto!

Tamara