Today, my baby boy had to have some exploratory surgery. It was nothing serious. He had a UTI. When boys have them, doctors want to make sure all the pipes work correctly.
Anyway, when we were in the room waiting on the doctor, he asked me to lay in his bed with him. Of course, I jumped right in there to cuddle with him. He said he was scared, and just wanted to hug me.
When the nurse came in to get him, he started to cry. I picked him up, hugged him, and he clung to me. I knew this wasn’t going to be a good thing.
The nurse allowed me to walk him to the surgery doors, but then said I would have to hand him over. When I handed him over, he screamed, cried, and reached his arms out at me screaming, “MOMMY!”. This was as the nurse walked off with him. All I could do was turn my back on him, and walk away.
Any mother who has experienced this knows how horrible that image is. To have your baby call for you desperately, and not being able to do a thing about it is painful. I wanted to cry. I wanted to turn around, run through the doors, and tell them to just forget it. But, I knew I couldn’t do that. I knew I had to be strong because it was the only way he would be strong.
Before too long, the doctor came in to tell me he was awake, and they didn’t find anything serious inside him. The doctor said he was not a happy little man, and he would be out soon.
In a few minutes, I heard him screaming, “MOMMY”. I ran out to the hall, and grabbed him immediately. I just wanted him to know that I was still there for him. In a way, I felt that I failed him because I couldn’t stop the pain he felt. So, all I could do was make it up to him.
He started screaming, “OW” and after some time, we discovered he had a bad headache from the anesthesia. I took him home, got him some wash clothes, and the little bear the hospital gave him. Soon, the anesthesia wore off, and he was back to being my happy little boy.
As a mother, I’m sure you’ve just imagined yourself going through the same experience. It’s heart wrenching, but when you consider that sometimes you have to do a hard thing to help your baby later, you feel better about it. It made me feel better that I was able to nurse him back to his normal self. It also made me feel good that now that we are past this experience, he knows that sometimes you have to do things you don’t like because that’s what life is all about. All in all, it was a great lesson for mommy and baby.
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