the staples and the sickness.

so i definitely owe an emme kay 9 months old post, but the tale of the injury will take precedence.  my original goal was to do everything in chronological order, but that's just not going to happen.  also, i should say that it's likely this post will be quite long, so feel free to skip it or skim it - i just want full documentation for us.  let me begin. 

our nanny had last week and this week off because her family was in town visiting from latvia and she hadn't seen them in two years.  back when she asked to take the time off, i didn't know i'd be changing jobs, so i figured i could take a vacation week and my mom SO graciously offered to take vacation/sick time to care for ek the following week (this one).  i also didn't know we'd be closing on a house at the end of july and everything would be in a shambles, but i digress.  when i got hired at the new company, i asked if i could please start the week of the 15th.  that would give me 2 weeks off to get a grip on my life and cover the week i needed for liga's time off.  well, the company said no they needed me to start the first.  so, i agreed but said the week of the 8th was non-negotiable but i would try to work from home during nap time, etc.

in my magical thinking, i figured the week "off" would be amazing - i would get to spend quality time with ek, lots of swimming and books and walks; i would get stuff done around the house; i would get some work done here and there; and all in all it would be relaxing and fun.  i was also planning to head to louisiana to pick mom up for her stay here on thursday so i could have some extra days there to see friends and family.

so.  i get off my first week of the new job, all fired up about this relaxing and super-fun week emme and i were about to have.  we went for a little swim.

when we got out of the pool, i noticed that she felt warm and she was a little cranky.  i chalked it up to being outside (it is a million degrees here, after all) and being ready for bed.  so i got her inside, fed her dinner, and then put her in the tub.  it was about halfway through the bath when i noticed that her skin was splotchy (from the cold) and she was shivering.  the bath water and temp in the room were not that cold at all, so i got her right out of the tub, wrapped her in a big towel, and brought her to her room.  she nursed voraciously, but i think it was mostly a comfort thing as she just didn't know what was going on.  i took her temp and it was over 102.  awesome news.

this was an unknown quantity for us as emme had never even had a sniffle up to this point.  i will never again take my child's good health for granted.  i talked to mom about it and justin and i discussed, and we opted to just put her to bed and see what happened.  i had made an appointment for saturday morning at the pediatrician, so we were hopeful she would be feeling better by then.  she was very sleepy and went right down.  the laings came over for a little while, but of course i was totally distracted and in there checking on her every 5 minutes.  i also had to call and cancel our swim date with the pyles, which was a huge bummer.  anyway...at around 10 or 1030, emme woke up super sad and sounded like she was in pain.  her fever was up near 103, so i called the triage desk at the hospital (this is all through the pediatrician since i obviously have no idea what to do in situations like this).  they told me to give her acetaminophen and keep her comfortable - cool towels, tepid bath, etc.  so no one got a lot of sleep that night, let me just say.  e would wake up every couple of hours with the most pitiful cry of all time ever.  i had her between us in the bed so i could comfort her immediately.  she mostly wanted to sleep on my body, which was insanely hot and not particularly comfortable, but of course i was worried about her so i didn't mind.

anyway...we make it through the night and get to the doctors office.  her doc wasn't doing saturday hours that day, so we had a male doctor who was nice but whose bedside manner wasn't as great as our doctor.  he looked her over and proclaimed that there wasn't anything wrong with her, but said we needed to rule out a UTI.  so, the catheter was beckoned.  let me just advise you, if you have a baby, a catheter is a device you want to avoid.  emme had just peed (i had the wet diaper to prove it), but they said they may be able to get some out, so they were going to try to cath her anyway.  awesome news.  justin and i had to hold her down (have i mentioned that this child does NOT like to be still?) while the nurse inserted the catheter, only to get not a single drop.  shocking, i know.  after that, they let me nurse her with a bag on her so she could maybe pee and they could get it that way.  45 minutes and no pee in a bag later, they decide it's a great idea to cath her AGAIN.  obviously, this was not more fun the second go-round.  but, at least there was pee this time.  they took her sample, gave us ibuprofen and sent us on our way.

ek's fever peaked at 105 on saturday night and was above 101 until tuesday when it was basically gone.  she refused to be more than inches away from me and basically turned into a goblin for the duration of her illness.  it was rough.  not only did i have to watch my baby be sick and know there was nothing i could do about it, but i couldn't get a single thing done, really, and working was pretty much out of the question.  also, my sweet, loving child was a goblin.  i wondered if she would ever go back to her normal self, seriously.  oh, she also wasn't sleeping more than 2 or 3 hours in a row, so the whole family was feeling pretty energized...ha.

on wednesday, she got a little rash on her belly/chest, so i knew it was roseola (for the record, that's what i thought it was based on my awesome internet and baby 411 research, but i was still worried, of course).  she was also getting back to normal, at least personality-wise.  awesome.

thursday morning, we had her 9 month doctors appt.  i'll write more about that later, but everything checked out and she only had to get one shot, so that was good.  we hopped in the car and headed to lafayette right after.

friday morning, we had plans to go to the drugstore with my grandma, and then meet my mom and some of her friends over their lunch break.  ek took a nap and then was ready to start playing.  she was much more like my baby, even though she didn't sleep a whole lot on thursday night (being in the pack-n- play, she could see me and decided she wanted to mess with my face for several hours between 12:30 and 5.  ruff.).  so, she woke up from her nap and i was sitting in the bed nursing her.  she's a wildebeest, so she was kicking her legs all over while nursing, as usual.  she somehow managed to kick my water glass off the nightstand and it rolled on to a pillow, then on to carpet, then somehow dinged a corner of the bed frame ever so lightly and managed to shatter.  awesome. 

i decided to leave emme on the bed, since broken glass was everywhere and she would have been all up in my business if i'd brought her onto the floor with me.  i've got glass in both hands and i see her making her way to the edge of the bed to come investigate what i'm doing, so i put my left arm up to sort of block her onto the bed while i figure out what to do with the glass in my hands.  well, that just did not stop her because she dove over my arm onto the pile of broken glass on the floor.  immediately, she starts screaming and i focus on not hyperventilating while assessing the damage.  there is blood EVERYWHERE.  i can't tell where/how much she is cut, just that she is.  i pull what seems to be the biggest shard of glass out of her head (this is not a feeling i recommend anyone trying), meanwhile trying to figure out the best course of action.  since i obviously cannot recall phone numbers at this time, i grab my cell phone and call my mom.  she told me later the words i said were "please come home now, i've hurt her".  definitely not the most calm and functional way to handle the situation, but i digress.  i then immediately called 911.  i give them the relevant information but i can barely hear them over emme crying.  i'm holding a cloth over her head and it seems to be helping a lot, but i decide the appropriate action is hanging up on 911 because i can't hear what they're telling me and i want both hands free to handle the baby.  they call back immediately and chastise me for hanging up on them before the ambulance got there, and they also tell me i need to be applying pressure to the wound with a dry cloth instead of a wet one.  so i'm doing that and moments later the ambulance is in the driveway.

i should say that even though it felt like everything was going in slow motion, the time from emme's crash to the ambulance's arrival could not have been more than 5 minutes.  by the time they drove up, she had mostly stopped crying and was smiling and excited to see the big yellow vehicle with all the flashing lights.  that sweet bunny.  we walked outside to meet the paramedics and i was beginning to realize that everything would probably be ok - i was starting to feel the intense relief of how many close calls we'd just had.  anyway, mom pulled up right then and i was able to tell her everything was ok.  we went inside with one of the paramedics, because apparently they have to investigate all accidents in case of child abuse.  the thought of someone hurting their child intentionally appalls me even more after this experience.  as we were coming back up to the front of the house, i see my grandmother in the driveway, sobbing while talking to the other paramedics.  timing is of the essence, y'all.  we got her calmed down, and emme into her carseat and she and i rode in the ambulance to the nearest hospital (though we probably could have driven ourselves, there was no way to know that).  we got checked in and dr. hamilton came to inspect ek's head.  it was only one big cut, about 2 or 2.5 inches, in her hair, about 4 inches above her right eyebrow.  he said he needed x-rays to make sure no shards of glass were in her skull/brain, so i tried to convince myself not to hyperventilate once again.  the x-rays weren't bad except for the not-to-be-understated fact that emme hates being still.  after a few minutes of intense worst-case scenarios playing out in my head, the doctor confirmed that her skull and brain were just fine.  this again brought in to sharp focus how amazingly fortunate we had been in this whole fiasco.

dr. hamilton decided to put staples in emme's head for a few reasons.  first, the staples are less likely to scar than stitches.  second, he wouldn't have to shave any of her hair.  third, they are super quick which is ideal when doing stuff like this to babies.  they put some goo on her head and we had to wait for 45 minutes for it to numb everything up.  during that time she got to walk around the hospital talking to people and pointing at everything and also watch some cartoons (which i never let her do).  the time passed, the doctor came over, strapped her down, cleaned her wound up super quick and bang bang, two staples and we were outta there.  the strapping down was the worst part.

so that's the story.  we go to the doctor this saturday to have staples removed.  emme is healing SO fast and SO well i am amazed.  she shouldn't have a scar, even though the doc said the injury may be a little tender for up to 6 months or so, crazy.  this is the only pic i have of the wound, so you can kind of see it's not the worst thing that could have happened.  i am so happy and grateful that she didn't land on her face or her eye or her sweet little neck and that the glass didn't penetrate her head.  i feel like this was such a close call and we were really fortunate that it went down the way it did.