march 20th part 1

on march 20th, surgery day, we had to be there at 5am. we actually all slept well and were ready to go at 4:30. lawton stayed with my aunt karen (until friday) and wyatt woke up in a great mood. it's almost like he was ready and knew what was coming. usually when he wakes, he is starving and today, he was just happy.

 we got checked in and sent to the 5th floor where the wait began. wyatt started to get restless around 5:30, so i put him in the stroller and did loop after loop around the floor. he fell asleep and around 6:15 everyone started coming in the room, family, nurses, doctors.

 my parents and brother were there to see him before his little face changed forever. still, after not eating for 12 hours, he was in a great mood!

 i tried to kiss his face and lip as many times as possible....

 he was a little ham meeting the "team" of anesthesiologists and they all seemed wonderful. i knew in my heart he was going to be in good hands. it helped that he was in such a great mood and not crying, things might have been different and harder for me if that were the case.

 i loved this man. his name was fred and he had a one month old. right then, i liked him and knew he would take good care of wyatt. he ended up being the one to grab wyatt in a warm blanket and take him away from my arms. wyatt liked him from the get go ;)

 of course that day he started to pull up and now at home has been doing the same. perfect timing when he can't bang his face!!

daddy love

and then, dr. matthews walked in and said it's time. doesn't he look like such a nice man?? well, he is one of a kind. a miracle worker. very special and we were lucky to have him. 

and that was it. they walked in, said let's go and took him. i didn't have a second to think about it. i kissed his lip and etched into my heart every detail about it. how it curled up, how it puckered when he was mad, how he worked his tongue around it to eat solids. everything. then i lost it for a few minutes and went to the waiting room to wait to see my baby.

it was a beautiful morning and once we got in the waiting room, my mom, dad, brother, jack and myself, i actually was okay. i found out the day before his surgery, that my friend Ali, had started a prayer list for Wyatt. i can't tell you how this just made me feel at ease. i cried when i saw the list of people that would be praying for wyatt every 15 minutes of the day. some i knew, some i didn't. thank you ali, i will never forget that as long as i live...

i also knew family and friends from all over were praying for wyatt. praying for the doctors. praying for us to be strong and i swear to you, every single one was heard and i felt that wyatt was so loved that day, that he was going to be okay as was i.

 katherine, libby and mac came to sit with us for some time which made the hours go by a lot faster. it looks like we were having a good time, because we were! we tried not to talk about the real reason we were there, just telling stories and making the time pass for myself and jack, which was just what we needed. friends are good for the soul ;) as are our families, but thats a given! ;)

dr. mair (ent) came out at 8:15 and said he was doing great and that as soon as he pierced the ears to put the tubes in, puss and goo came out. he said he has "volcano ears" and that now he has 30% of his hearing back. he was glad he also took a look at his trachea, because it is smaller than most childrens. he has to "catch up" to us and hopefully they won't have to stretch it one day. BUT, if he hadn't looked, they would have used a larger airway tube during surgery which would have caused bleeding and irritation, so they now knew to use a much smaller one. again, good job to my mom for suggesting he look at the trachea!

around 11:30, dr. matthews came out and said that wyatt did great. i think i finally let go and just cried. i also asked him if he was proud of him ;) 

first surgery was over. we have been thinking about this particular surgery for one year now and it was over. he was okay. 

it was time to see my new wyatt.