"The Nenis"

I don't think I've ever formally introduced Elliott's skin tag, which we lovingly refer to as "Nenis" (Three guesses on how Mike and Cecily came up with the name. I don't think I need to tell you that it's a modified, more kid-friendly version of what Jacob calls it).

Here it is in all its glory... I guess I should correct myself and say, "Here is was in all its glory".

It's gone now. My son is no longer abnormal. No more the mutant that Jacob talks about, he is now the perfect baby. Or rather, he will be the perfect baby, once he isn't crying for any more pain killers, the poor kid. :(

The first time I became aware of his little skin tag was seconds after the doctor retrieved him from my womb. Jacob was all sorts of excited and was telling me that he was out, then as the nurses started to hand him to Jacob he said, "He's a mutant, Sara!" Of course he was kidding, and he knew that he was kidding, but I hadn't seen him yet. I didn't know what could be wrong with my baby to prompt Jacob into saying something like that. When I found out what it was, I don't mind admitting that I had a slight problem with it. I secretly wanted his pediatrician to take it off before we left the hospital, but when he saw it he said that it would be better to have a plastic surgeon take it off when he was between 6 months to a year old. Since then, I have not only accepted this little anomaly, but I've really grown attached to it (I like to kiss it. Is that weird...?). And now it's gone.

Of course I'm happy that he won't get made fun of for it when he's a little older by kids his age, but it turned out to be a cute, unique thing about my little guy.

So this past Wednesday we went to consult with the plastic surgeon that E's pediatrician referred us to. He said that if Elliott was 2 or 3 months old it would have been perfect, but since he's older we'd have to enlist the help of Jacob and a nurse to hold him down during the procedure. Jacob told him that Dr. Wynn had told us to wait until he was older, and the plastic surgeon said, "Hm. I'm going to have to write him a letter and tell him that in the future, it's much better to do it while they're a bit younger." I guess Dr. Wynn was thinking they'd need to do a general anesthetic but they just did a local. Oh well, you live you learn, right?

The plastic surgeon (Dr. Bishop) came out to tell the nurse who was checking us out to get us in as soon as possible because he didn't want to wait any longer just in case he got any bigger, making it harder to do the surgery. They looked at the schedule for what seemed like 10 minutes, trying to move stuff around, seeing if he could take a shorter lunch that day or not go to a conference this day, and they finally figured out that the only time that would work before the end of the month was today at 9:30. I was pretty anxious. Like, really, really nervous.

We gave him some baby Tylenol this morning to help things out, and I had Jacob give him a blessing right before we left (by the way, Jacob confided in me that he had a small impulse to say "Smith" again during the blessing but luckily, since I was holding Elliott and didn't want to drop him from laughing, he said "Ashley"). We got there and they whisked Jacob and Elliott back super fast, I stayed in the waiting room equipped with an iPod and listened to Jet's Get Born, I wanted to listen to something loud just in case I heard my baby screaming. It worked.

They came out after what seemed like FOREVER, but it was actually only like 30 minutes. Elliott was down to just his diaper because they had gotten blood on his outfit and the swaddler, why they didn't just undress him is beyond me (thanks for the advice by the way, April... Jacob said swaddling him helped a TON to hold him down). I could tell that he had had a hard time in there, his breathing was still a little uneven from crying so hard and he was sad and super cuddly, although that part I didn't mind so much. Jacob said that he was screaming big time, so it's a good thing I took the iPod. Jacob said that it was pretty obvious that he didn't feel anything, because he only complained a little when they stuck him with the needle to numb his neck. The part that he hated was being held down by everyone, the poor little guy. He's a trooper though.

So far today he's been okay, he's still tender and sad, and things that would normally not really matter to him are a huge deal today. I'm just keeping him drugged with baby meds, I figure let's get him good and addicted early. I still don't mind him being so cuddly though. :)



Here's a short little video of him today. He was playing and I wanted to show all of you that he's still a happy little guy despite being cut open today.

He's taking a nap now and we have this stuffed bear in his crib with him. Lately he's just noticed that it's in there with him and he's loved playing with it. When we were putting him down we had to keep on taking it away from him because he was playing with it so much. I think it's time to take the toys out of the crib, because he ended up falling asleep with it like so:

He must have just needed a shoulder to cry on about the surgery...

One more cute, cute story. The other night Jacob had gone out to a LOST season finale party with some friends and I was at home playing on our new laptop (oh yeah, we bought a laptop finally!). Elliott woke up and wanted to eat, so I got him and was feeding him his bottle while I was still playing on the computer. He was finished, but I didn't want to put him down quite yet because I was just enjoying holding him, and all of a sudden I hear this noise coming from him. At first I figured it was a cry, so I started rocking him but when I looked down at him I saw that he was laughing, totally asleep! It was so, so, SO cute!! I just sat there staring at him, it lasted for about 6 or 7 minutes. It was so sweet, I really wanted to record it but I was in my bedroom and if I would have gotten up to get the camcorder it would have broken the spell. It was just the cutest thing. Oh, and also last night Jacob was playing some Bob Dylan for Elliott on the guitar. I wasn't there, but Jacob said that it seemed like he really enjoyed it. He was looking at Jacob and being mesmerized by the guitar, and then he'd kick his legs and get all excited. It must have been so cute.

Before I leave, here are a few more pictures to satisfy Becky's Elliott cravings:

What gorgeous baby blues!