Baptism by Steri-soap

If you've ever visited us in the hospital, or anyone in the NICU, you know what Steri-soap is... its that sterile smelling hand wash that they make you use at every sink at the hospital. You know... the one that kills every bacteria known to man and makes your hands feel like you've spent all day crawling across the Sahara in August.

Anyway, tonight in our pre-op preparations for Will, we had to bathe him in it. And then again tomorrow, before we leave for the hospital at 5:45a, he's got to have another super refreshing, super drying, super sterile smelling bath. Ouch! The poor kid's got sensitive skin... this isn't helping!

We got the call late this afternoon that we're scheduled for the OR first thing in the morning for Will's g-tube surgery. Hopefully the whole thing happens roughly on time, because we aren't allowed to feed him anything by mouth after midnight tonight.

This whole "planning for surgery" thing is really new for Nate and me. Aside from one time in the NICU, every surgery the boys have had has been in an emergency situation... shunts malfunctioning... neurosurgeons on call in the middle of the night. We've known for weeks that June 9 is the day. Its weird. I have actually had time this evening to walk around the house and calmly pack an overnight bag, rather than rushing around the house in a sleepy, scared, middle of the night, awake with a vomiting child stupor, actually able to think about what I'd like to have over the next three days, rather than what we can't live without for the next 24 hours! We even had the time and forethought to move Luke's car seat and stroller to Oma's car, to allow her some mobility over the next couple of days while we're tied up at UNC with Will.

Its all amazingly different, though not without anxiety, of course. We aren't looking forward to the surgery tomorrow, though we are looking forward to the end result of fat Will :)

If you'd like a better understanding of g-tubes and what our experience is going to be like, check out this super-cute, yet informative children's story that Nate found online today (its a .pdf file, so only open it if you've got Adobe Acrobat Reader).

So keep us in your thoughts... hopefully by noon tomorrow, Will will be on the road to chubby cheeks and a belly to match his brother's!