Sept 3, 2010: Big Boy Bed and Surgery for Marco

The other day, Aaron asked me if I thought it might be a good idea to remove one of the rails from Marco's crib. I told him to go for it, so he did. Marco had an absolute blast that first night. He was sooooo excited, that he could not go to sleep. It was SUCH a big change for him. That first night, he only came out of his room ONCE! We were really surprised and happy! Next morning, boy, was he ever tired. I figured for sure he would sleep well the next night. Wrong!!! The next night, Marco came out of his room, oh, about a million times. We lost count as well as our patience at the end (just a little...). But we hung in there, and eventually Marco went to sleep. That was the end of it, he now sleeps in his Big Boy Bed all by himself, he handles his new freedom like a champ, only comes out once in a while. On weekends, he does get up first and insists in opening all our doors and turning on all the lights just to make sure we are all up. So cute! I love that we took this big step to independence for Marco, and he did too! Soon, we will go shopping for a twin size bed for him with a good mattress (those crib mattresses have no support whatsoever).
Marco has been diagnosed with an inguinal hernia, and needs surgery. Luckily, it is a routine surgery, so nothing to worry about. Personally I have never had major surgery and it is weird to me that I have to send my 3 1/2 year old to the Hospital for one! (Part of me thinks: My gosh, these kids have been through so much already, is this really neccesary??) But it is, and in the grand sceme of things, this is relatively minor.
Marco and I met the Urologist who will perform the surgery, and I immediately liked him. Marco warmed up to him also, which is a small miracle for my very suspicious child (especially in an exam room, he is NOT a fan of exam rooms.) Marco will have his surgery at the end of October, and it will be out-patient, which means we can take him home soon afterwards, he can recover at home and will probably do so within days. I have several friends whose children had surgery lately (Major surgeries, nothing like this) and the kiddo's recovered like champs.
Probably to me, the scariest thing about surgery is the aneastetic. People have different reactions to them. But we already crossed that bridge last week when Marco had an MRI (on his brain) done as part of a study at UCD MIND institute. He went through that very well, just groggy for most of the day. Glad we had that experience, so now we know what to expect.