Made it through the shunt surgery.

Ian made it through the shunt surgery. We were scheduled for 9:30 so I last nursed him at 3:00 am. We could give him Pedialyte at 5:00 am. Admitting was at 7:00 am but they didn't end up taking him until 11:30 am. 8 hours without proper milk! It was torturous! Luckily he's got the best Daddy in the world so he was bounced and cuddled for 3 hours. I figured if I held him it would be even more difficult because he wouldn't understand why I wasn't nursing him.

The procedure took, as they had expected, about 1.5 hours in total, and they said it went well. They allowed one parent up to the recovery room so I headed up when he was moved there. He's got a couple of incisions on the back right side of his head, one half moon on the top portion and a smaller straight about 2 inches below. His head is only shaved in the area they were working. He's also got an incision in his tummy right above his g-tube.

He seemed very agitated when I arrived. I'm sure he was super hungry. I had about 4.5 oz of breast milk I had pumped in the morning so I put it in a bottle and tried to feed him. He guzzled the whole thing down without gagging! I was hoping this was a testament to how things would go after the pressure was off his brain from the fluid. We'll see.

He still seemed very agitated, like he was in pain, so I asked the nurse about it and she gave him some more pain meds. It's so hard to see your baby in pain!

We were there together about an hour or so and he mellowed a bit after the meds but his eyes looked kind of strange. It seemed to take effect pretty immediately, probably because it was going through his IV. They did some x-rays before we headed up to the room in the PICU (Pediatric Intensive Care Unit). He wasn't so happy about that, understandably so. They had to do 4 and had to move him around to do them.

Our room in the PICU was nothing like the Pediatric Ward. It was more like the NICU with dividers between the beds. No couch or bathroom, just an open space with a few chairs and now his crib being rolled in. We do have a window but it's about 1/3 down from the ceiling. At least there's some natural light.

Mike came up to see him. He thought he looked good. I headed down to get a water and call my parents and Mike's Mom. He was napping when I left but definitely wasn't when I returned. He seemed extremely agitated again so the nurse asked if I wanted to breast feed him. Of course I did but was a bit afraid to hurt him. They placed him on my Boppy on the good side of his head. He proceeded to nurse for about an hour off and on, but mostly on. Quite often during his would get agitated again and eventually, they gave him some Tylenol with Codeine through his g-tube. It didn't seem to take effect very quickly. I kept him in my lap for a few hours to keep him as calm as possible but it felt like he shouldn't be that fussy. I didn't feel they should let him be in pain, at least for the first 24 hours. The nurse asked the resident about pain meds again.

I had to use the restroom so I asked the nurse to help me get him back into the crib. Just as I did a couple of his fabulous nurses from the NICU came to visit him. They were on him quickly, making sure everything was okay, just as they had done in the NICU. So sweet! They talked with him and calmed him while I went out for a minute. He seemed to recognize them because he calmed rather quickly.

Soon after they left, he fell asleep again and I figured I needed to get some dinner and headed downstairs. I wolfed down some food and got back as quick as possible. When I arrived, the nurse said he had lost it soon after I left so they gave him some Morphine. We'll see how the night goes.