A quick glimpse

Baby J on a field trip with mom and E's class :)

Apparently, Baby J will be having surgery in the next few weeks. It's a minor surgery, but he'll be under anesthesia and that is scary to me. Even with everything we have gone through with each of our munchkins, this is definitely the scariest to me. I never thought it would be the youngest having surgery. I always figured E would have had to have heart surgery for his VSD (ventricular septal defect).

A quick run-down of the trials and tribulations we have dealt with as parents:
(Nothing terribly huge and I know others have to go through much harder things. Don't think I'm complaining, just sharing, so you can see the big picture.)

E: heart rate dropped numerous times during labor and umbilical cord around his neck at birth; diagnosed with VSD at 2 days old while still in the hospital, even though we could have gone home early, I had decided to take the extra day for rest and help as a first time mom; ppd for me and low supply and minimal to no support for breastfeeding resulting in me giving up (important to me but luckily he did ok on formula with no allergies :) ); jaundice but numbers never checked (still makes me mad at the dr, as Jas and I were uninformed and young); slow growth, probably due to VSD and high metabolism; speech delay at 18 months, with formal diagnosis of communication/speech delay shortly after; autism diagnosis through school in kindergarten per IEP team; Asperger's/Pervasive Developmental Diagnosis Not Otherwise Specified and possible ADHD at 8 (?, it was the end of 4th grade I think...). He still has a small hole in his heart but it is slowly closing, causing no issues/symptoms and doesn't need surgery. He has a behavior plan as well as an Individual Education Plan through school, is academically advanced, in 6th grade at 10 and making major progress socially and behaviorally. Oh yeah, and an unfortunate incident with a quarter that involved several x-rays and mom watching the toilet closely. We never did actually see the quarter again, but x-rays confirmed it was passed...

A: Heart murmur at birth and because of the sibling history had echo at hospital, turned out to be nothing serious, just the pre-natal vein/artery (correct me if I'm wrong?) wasn't closed completely, fairly common; ppd for me and again, low milk supply; jaundice with his numbers getting up to about 15 - seriously, he didn't look as yellow as E did, though :(; somewhat slow growth (apparently, I just make small babies, though, cause even on formula he didn't get chunky ;) ) and then a possible formula allergy so he had to go on soy formula for a while; reflux that needed prilosec till he was about 11 months and spitting up, he even needed an ultrasound and ct scan (I think? the one with the dye...); he's also had x-rays 3 different times from falling (the most recent off his bike and needing his elbow and knee x-rayed!).

J: heart rate dropped during labor and umbilical cord around his neck at birth; slow (but steady) weight gain but no other failure to thrive symptoms; heart murmur noticed at 1 week old, again because of sibling history sent for echo - turned out to be an "innocent" murmur; very jaundiced, numbers up to 18 and needed bili-blanket at home for several days; undescended left testicle which was seen on ultrasound at a few weeks old.

That brings me full-circle. The surgery is to "bring down" his left testicle. At just over a year old, it has still not come down on it's own. The urologist couldn't feel it and manually move it so he's scheduling J for surgery in the next few weeks. It's an hour long surgery at the hospital and he'll be under anesthesia, but he gets to come home right after he's out of recovery, apparently. I'm nervous for him. I can't be in there with him, he'll be medicated, he can't eat or drink (and most likely, not breastfeed) for several hours beforehand. He still nurses on demand, and most nights that means quite a lot, sometimes it feels like all night long ;)

I know deep down that he's going to be fine, but I'm anxious. I guess I'm asking for some prayers from you all. For J. For me. For the doctor. Thanks.