I actually witnessed my son get clamped and sliced up...not pretty! Thankfully, there was some local anesthesia and a good old pacificer to keep him occupied. It was a pretty swift surgery, maybe 10 minutes total, but felt much longer, as I cringed in the corner - hands over my eyes but peeking thru like during a horror movie. Finally it was done, they put jellied up gauze over him, and we returned back to our room. If your son is circumcised, you will need to continue to put massive amounts of petroleum jelly on a gauze, to ensure that 'it' doesn't stick - that would hurt.
Interesting note on circumcision - I thought everyone did it, but apparently about 50% do, 50% don't. There are no proven health benefits, it's just preference. My main reason was that I wanted him to 'look like daddy' - so he won't be confused growing up. I guess it was good enough reasoning to shell out the additional $250 cost (not covered by insurance).
Meanwhile, my wife was getting some guidance and advice from the lactation consultant. Definitely recommend asking the hospital for one - while I don't know the details or technicalities, the consultant helps you to know what to expect, how to 'latch' the baby, etc. Ours also gave us some free Medela pump accessories ($50 retail value)
- we ended up renting the actual pump from the hospital for a reasonable rate.Finally, we thought all was well until we found out that our son had jaundice. It sounded like some terminally ill disease, but it's not that bad. But, he had to stay an extra day under some UV lights wearing protective sunglasses, and consume formula milk to help flush it out. Jaundice comes from the French word jaune, meaning yellow. The nurse said back in the day doctors noticed that the babies that lay near a window did not have issues with jaundice while those on the interior did. That was a clue that sun exposure was needed to help the child recover. Thankfully our son did, and we were able to take him home.
No comments:
Post a Comment