She had a pokey belly button

When Emily was less than a year old, we noticed that her outie belly button was a little more "outie" than we thought maybe was normal.  At one of her doctor visits I brought it up and was told she had umbilical hernia.  I was assured that it didn't hurt her and that it would most likely go away by the time she was 5 years old.  If it didn't go away by that point, it probably wouldn't on it's own and that would be the point to look into getting it fixed up.

4 years later, we were still poking at her belly button for entertainment.  With all the medical expenses from last year that all four of us accumulated (seizure (Emily), broken finger (Gracey), esophageal ulcer (Morgan), and basal cell carcinoma removal...skin cancer (Corky), we definitely met our deductible.  Luckily, our deductible carries on for a couple of more weeks, so we decided to have Emily's belly button taken care.

The night before the surgery I snapped a few photos of her belly button.  I was feeling all emotional because my child would be having surgery (a minor one, I know) and that belly that we have been loving on for 5 years would be different the next day.  Thankfully Emily kept the mood very light by not taking a serious picture AT ALL!  This seems to be a recurring theme with Emily and pictures lately.  I loved all the pictures that I took.  It shows her goofiness in her personality and in her choice of outfits when given the freedom on a Sunday afternoon!

Before the surgery they gave her some motrin with versed.  It relaxed her and definitely made her a little silly.

I am so glad I had my iPhone with me so I could record her behavior.  I was laughing so hard that my mascara was running, and maybe the nurses thought Corky and I were mean by having such a good time with it all, but oh well.  We were cracking up!





The surgery went perfectly and I was able to go to the recovery section and be with Em while she started waking up.  As expected her tummy was pretty sore for the first couple of days, but nearly 2 weeks later and she feeling good!  Her incision is still healing, and she thinks that looks pretty creep, but it is definitely better.  Her tummy looks so grown up now, all nice and flat.

On a different note, but sort of the same, Gracey got an earache the night before Em's surgery.  I decided to keep her home and so that is why she was at the hospital with us.  At that point she only had an earache.  Just as we were leaving the hospital to take Emily home, she got herself a fever and was feeling pretty yucky.  I had two sickies to take care of.  We were all so exhausted!!!  At the end of the day though, I was glad that it all happened at once with the two of them being laid up together.  It would have been an even longer week if they had taken turns.

Too bad though that while we had to keep to our selves, the rest of the town enjoyed the most gorgeous weather.  That night I set up the camp chairs outside with some blankets, and the girls and I enjoyed the sunset and nice weather.