I know I'm usually a happy, upbeat, carefree mama - but I'm a bit stressed right now!!!
On Saturday (I think) Jimmy asked me if I had noticed lately that it seems like Colby gets a little pooch down in his groin area when he gets really angry. Colby has had an umbilical hernia since birth - and at his 2 month appointment the Pediatrician said it looked just fine and would heal itself - umbilical hernias don't tend to be an issue. But if we noticed any others pop up in other places, to give them a call. I hadn't noticed the one down in his groin (of course, making me feel like a bad mom - I change his diaper how many times during the day and dad changes probably 2 diapers a day and has noticed?!), and Jimmy pointed it out. It doesn't portrude that much, but it feels exactly like the umbilical one. So I called the doc's office first thing Monday morning and we're set to go in and have the Pediatrician check it out in the afternoon.
Of course, Colby was happy as a clam during the whole appointment, which meant that the hernia didn't show itself. But based off my description, etc., his pediatrician determined it sounded like a "textbook" inguinal hernia (hernia in the groin area). This means she sent a referral to a surgeon at Children's Hospital. The plan was I would call them on Thursday or Friday and set up an appointment for evaluation / consultation. Then, most likely, he'd eventually need surgery to repair the hernia.
Well, this afternoon Colby took a great nap (probably around 2.5 hours - I'm not sure - I didn't quite keep track!), woke up, and I changed his diaper. Then I proceeded to feed him - he should've been pretty hungry and usually when he's very hungry he's pretty serious about eating - he won't mess around. But he was kinda distracted as he was eating, fussy, and just kinda kept pulling off of me and screaming. So I switched him to the other side, figuring I had just run out of milk on that side (I've been having issues with keeping up with him - see below!). Again, he ate some, but was fussy. At the appointment yesterday, the pediatrician said that if we were noticing increasing fussyness we should check his groin area and see if the herina was bulging. So I did. And freaked out. It was portruding much more than I had seen before - and it was pretty taught - and when I poked at it it seemed to make Colby even more unhappy. So with tears in my eyes, I called Jimmy. I described what was going on and he said he had seen that before too (which instantly put him on my shit list - I didn't realize it had been that bad before and hadn't told our pediatrician that!). He said I should call the pediatrician's office and talk to the nurse (which was already my next step, but I wanted to let him know what was going on).
My call to the nurse took a while. She confirmed that the referral had been sent, so she said I should call as soon as I was off the phone with her and ask to set up the consult - and let them know that I thought it was getting worse. The nurse also said that if we noticed he wasn't eating well, wasn't having as many poopy diapers, seemed to be in pain, was vomiting, or had a fever, we should head straight to the emergency room at Children's - that would get him an immediate consult and he'd be where he needed if they decided he needed surgery sooner than expected. Of course, just the thought of that makes my belly turn!
So I called Children's. I gave them a bunch of info to basically pre-register, and then worked on scheduling the consult. Amazingly enough, they do clinics outside of the Seattle area, and tomorrow they're going to be in Everett - at the Womens & Children's Pavillion where I delivered Colby (and where all my prenatal doc appointments were)!!!! Perfect! And they had an opening at 2pm! So Colby and I will be meeting with a surgeon (I believe) tomorrow to see what they think. I hope they have a way to feel / find the hernia better than the pediatrician could - otherwise I'd guess we'd have to try to piss him off to get it to show itself!!!
I'm prepared for the fact they'll likely say our little guy needs surgery.... but still not happy about it! I know it's a very routine thing, and many babies have hernias and need them repaired, but it still isn't fun to think about!!!
Finally, I'm not sure if Colby's going through a growth spurt or what, but suddenly Sunday he basically wanted to eat on both sides every feeding (usually he just eats on one side). This was fine for part of the day, but by the evening, I was about empty even when he was hungry! When I went to feed him before bed, I don't think he really got more than an ounce or so from me! So we had to pull some milk from the fridge (not really that big of a deal) and feed him a bottle. He did great, downed it, and went to sleep. Then this morning when we got up for the day, I fed him on one side and pumped the other (my usual). Well only about an hour later, he was hungry - and I had nothing to give him! I fed him the pumped bottle (again, totally fine, but a little frustrating), and he was happy. But again today he's wanting to eat on both sides each feeding. My body doesn't seem to have gotten the memo!!! So I'm slightly stressed 'cause of this too!
I know that giving him bottles of breastmilk is just fine - and even if we needed to give him some formula that would be okay too - but it is just kinda the icing on the cake right now with me being confused / stressed / etc.
Luckily Colby doesn't seem to be too bothered by any of this - I mean, he was fussy today at one point (when I saw the hernia popping out more), but basically he's his happy self most of the time!
Will update as I know more!!!
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