Last Monday began like any other day.

Took Fighter back to school after a long hiatus cos I was busy having Penny and then in confinement.

Hehehe my handsome well dressed boy.  Tshirt from Wild Baby.

I left Penny at home for our nanny to look after.

When I got home, nanny told me worriedly that she’d noticed a lump on Penny’s erm labia.  I checked, and sure enough there was a huge protruding lump on the left side of her groin.  When I gingerly poked it, it felt hard. O_O

I had no idea what it was and since when it appeared.  I’d always noticed her labia was a bit swollen but I thought that was normal since she’s a newborn and it was water retention or hormones from being inside my tummy. I’d certainly never seen a newborn labia before her and never noticed the lump before either.

To be safe, I quickly rushed her to our pediatrician.  Doctor looked at her and said it was possibly a hernia. O_O

He ordered an ultrasound scan, and sure enough it was confirmed an inguinal hernia.  Inguinal hernias are more common with baby boys but sometimes girls can get them too. T___T  They’re more likely in premature babies too — but Penny is hardly premature leh so suay she get this even though born at 36 weeks.

Usually it’s the intestine that has dropped into the crotch, but in Penny’s case it was her ovary that had fallen through, which is rarer.  No wonder the lump felt hard and round, it was her ovary I felt. T___________T

The doctors recommended surgery and I nearly fainted.  Surgery at a month old. T_____________T

Apparently it’s a pretty routine procedure and is done to prevent future incidents from happening even if the doctor manages to push back the ovary this time (she couldn’t).  The surgery involves making a small incision at the lower abdomen, pushing back up the ovary, then sewing up the hole in the muscle to prevent future incidents, before stitching up the incision.

So we scheduled the surgery for Wednesday, two days later.

The night before, I packed our hospital bag.  And cried.

I was damn emo thinking SKY AH SKY WHY ME WHY THEM. Why do both my babies at such young ages have to battle health issues serious enough to warrant hospital stays and surgeries.  Most adults haven’t even had surgery, why does my poor little one month old baby girl have to go through one at this age. My heart broke imagining what she would have to go through if I could have the surgery for her I would. T_________T

On the way to the hospital next morning, I cried again wtf.

Anyway I checked her in for admission and got settled into our room to await the surgery.

Uhh. My face don’t ask wtf.

Penny had to fast for at least four hours before the surgery.  She normally drinks every 2-3 hours so that’s like her missing a whole feed cycle.  Imagine denying a hungry baby crying for milk.  I think that was one of the most torturous things for me.  She doesn’t normally take a pacifier but I kept stuffing one into her mouth for two hours straight to give her some kind of comfort. 🙁

Changing her diaper before going in to surgery.  Later doctor got nasty surprise wtf.

Besides being hungry she wasn’t really in any discomfort thank goodness. And she’s damn cute in this set of photos hahaha.

What face is this!

Still getting her diaper changed hahaha.

^^

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Then it was time to head to the Operating Theater.  Instead of a normal hospital bed, the nurses wheeled her in a metal pediatrics cot.

We had to change her into a surgical gown.  Unfortunately the only gowns available were adult size wtf.  So I took an adult gown and wrapped her up in it.

The gown made her look tinier than ever and she looked so vulnerable lying there. T_________T

The OT is always damn cold so luckily the nurses brought a blanket and swaddled her up in it too.

I was all prepared to enter the OT with her.  A  lot of people said they’d rather not see and I also don’t wanna see leh.  But somehow being there in the OT would make me feel less helpless – if anything happens, I want to know immediately.

But the anesthetist said that Penny would be under general anesthetic and she’s too young to notice if I was there or not, so I didn’t need to go in. 🙁 They pushed her in and I started bawling again. T____T

We went downstairs to have a quick lunch while waiting for the operation to be done – they said it’d take about 45 minutes.

Stupid Dome service damn slow so I was going crazy waiting for my food and then gobbling it down.  Then had to wait for them to slowly give us the bill also.  Then suddenly my phone rang and it was the hospital!

They said, “come up to the OT immediately your daughter needs you.”

Wah panicked like crazed wilderbeest.  Cos they made it sound so urgent and as though something went wrong okay!

Left my parents downstairs while Fatty and I dashed upstairs to the OT.  Outside, while waiting to be let in, we heard a baby crying.

Me: “That’s Penny crying!”

Fatty: “Cannot be she shook off the GA so fast.”

*baby cries again

Us: “Oh yea that’s her.” wtf hahaha cos her scream very loud and distinctive one. :X

I was nearly running around in circles cos they hadn’t opened the doors for us yet!  When I finally got in, they put me in scrubs and quickly led me in… and I saw Penny, still wrapped in the blanket, being held by a nurse, squalling away.

The nurses asked me to nurse her for a bit to give her a drink and to calm her down I guess.  And they finally told me everything went well thank goodness say earlier next time please lol.

She was still too sleepy though so her suck wasn’t very strong.  She was merely sucking for comfort which was totally okay with me!

Penny immediately after the surgery. She had a drip in one little hand, and a monitoring device on her other. 🙁

She continued sleeping for another 1-2 hours and woke up ravenous.  Drank a lot of milk which is a good sign. 🙂

Penny with Daddy.

The night after the operation was rough though.  She was on paracetemol for the pain but obviously it still hurt so she was horribly grumpy the whole night.

Every time I put her down she’d cry and cry.  She probably felt so insecure and uncomfortable that she just wanted someone to hold her.  So I spent the night just cradling and cuddling her.  She slept in fits and bursts but I think I only got about an hour of full sleep, when at 8 am I finally managed to hug her from the side and we both slept quite peacefully that way.

The doctor okay-ed her discharge the next morning though so home we went!  She was doing much better already, less grumpy and more like her normal self (which can also be quite grumpy wtf)

But she was well enough for us to go ahead with her full moon party over the weekend!

So glad it’s all over.

To other noob parents, please keep a look out for any weird lumps on your newborns.  I didn’t know what to look out for – or even what a hernia was and that it can affect young babies – so I would have missed it if not for the experienced eagle eye of my nanny. Hernias left untreated can be very dangerous. The organ part that slips through the muscle can be strangulated and die off.

Sf you spot anything unusual on your baby and you don’t know what it is, no harm just getting it checked out at the doctor’s.

I’m very thankful we caught Penny’s case early and no damage was done. 🙂