Craig was born with an epigastric hernia. We were told that he would need surgery sometime to fix it-a minor surgery. We dragged our feet knowing how rough it was with an infant that can't communicate with us. So when Craig's vocabulary exploded in July and we found out that Natalie didn't need to have her Fontan surgery, we decided to schedule Craig's hernia surgery at Providence Hospital.
You can see the little bulge of the epigastric hernia in Craig's belly in the below picture. It hadn't really gotten any worse since his birth, but the surgeon told us that he had see school-age children present with complications from hernia's like this because their parents waited to have the surgery.
The day of the surgery, I woke up with knots in my stomach. Even though I had been talked through the surgery and was told that he may be under general anesthesia all of 15 minutes, my mommy's heart kicked in. I had a fitful nights sleep before surgery morning. I was unsure how my boy who was unfamiliar with hospital environment would accept being separated from mom and dad. Natalie and Tim were in Anchorage with us. The two older girls stayed home. I took Craig and left early for the hospital. The plan was that after Craig was taken back for surgery, I would go get Natalie and Tim to be there when Craig came out of surgey. After we waited almost the whole two hours in a small intake area before getting an armband for "the patient," (I wasn't impressed) Craig was given his Ativan so he would be mellow when taken back to the surgery area. Because we were at a surgery center that had both adult and pediatric surgeries, protocal was a lot different and parents weren't allowed to be back with their child. Having gone with Natalie back until she had been put under for her heart cath in July, I tried to persuade them to let me go back, but didn't succeed. By the time they came with their little wagon and blanket for Craig, he was sufficiently "mellow" and all he could do was smile as he rolled away.
They weren't kidding when they said it would be a short surgery. Twenty minutes after I left the waiting area, I was buzzed to come back. The gal at the desk said that the recovery nurses wanted me to come back because Craig "was NOT happy!" And he wasn't! I was told that kids this age wake up from anesthesia very upset sometimes. The worst thing for my little man was that he didn't like his IV in his arm. He tugged and pulled, arched his back and pushed against me as I tried to hold him. He did calm down a bit after some apple juice and "happy juice" through is IV. To say the least, it was a quite different experience than I've experienced with our two million dollar daughter after her surgeries.
Craig was a champ. He didn't complain much about pain except for an occasional "owie." Tylenol and ibuprofen kept his discomfort under control. Below you can see the cute little airplane bandage that the assistant surgeon (NP) put on Craig's belly.
Craig's recovery went well and we are thankful that the Lord brought us through one more surgery. 
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