I would love a rewind button for Tuesday. For starters, I overslept. Always an ominous sign.
We barely made it to school before the tardy bell rang, but make it, we did. We ran to Target to pick up a toy for Toys for Tots and then it was off to preschool for the 4-yo.
Back at home, the baby was sleeping and the 2-yo and I were happily playing in the playroom when I got a phone call from a dear, old friend. As we were catching up, I started picking up some things around the kitchen. I walked through the laundry room and caught a glimpse of the calendar. "4-mo well visit, 11:15" it read. On Tuesday. Shoot. I looked at the clock: 10:45. I explained my predicament to my friend, hung up and ran upstairs to wake up the baby. I got everyone dressed, packed a backpack with snacks and books for the 2-yo, loaded everyone into the car and got to the doctor's office with not a minute to spare. I ran into the office, pushing the 2-yo in the stroller with one arm and carrying the 4-mo in the infant carrier with the other arm (if I strap everyone down, I feel I have better odds of avoiding all of the nasty germs invading the place). I walked up to the counter, out of breath, with my hair coming out of my ponytail. I gave the receptionist my name and waited. And waited. And waited. I watched her stare at the computer screen, quizzically. Then she asked for his birth date. Uh oh.
"Do you not see any appointment? I swear, it was today at 11:15."
She clicked away at her computer a few more times.
"Ahhhh, yes, there you are. You have an appointment and yes, it is at 11:15, but it's NEXT Tuesday."
I let out an audible sigh and rolled my eyes. Figures. Back into the car we went.
I unloaded everyone at home and announced that it was lunch time. The 2-year-old and I sat, happily conversing and munching on our lunch while the baby sat in the bumbo seat and smiled at us. I was almost finished with my lunch when I caught my 2-year-old starting to stand on the bar stool he had just been sitting on.
"Sit d--", I started to say. I watched him start to fall in slow motion and I stretched out my arm to try to catch him. I missed him by an inch.
The noise he made when hitting the ceramic tile floor was deafening. He immediately started crying as I rushed into action. I grabbed him up to comfort him and I noticed his body was very rigid. I tried to carry him and he cried. I took him to the den and asked him to sit with me. With my help, he got up on the couch, laid down and started closing his eyes. I started to panic. I picked up my phone and dialed the pediatrician. I had never seen him react to a fall this way before. I caught this same child earlier Tuesday morning trying to climb into a pack and play. He fell backwards, hit the floor, cried for about 3 seconds and ran off to play again. He is TOUGH. After a lengthy interview, the nurse on the phone told me to carefully lift him to put him in the car seat...without moving him...and bring him right in. I really started to panic. I put the baby into the car and came back to gingerly lift the 2-yo. He screamed through the entire process.
I started wondering how I was going to take a baby and a 2-yo, who needed to be carried without moving him, into the doctor's office all at once. I frantically called a neighbor as I was backing out of my driveway. She told me to drop off the baby. I called my mom and told her to come to the ped's office, exchange cars with me, pick up the baby from my neighbor and then go get the 4-yo from preschool.
I walked into the pediatrician's office for the 2nd time in an hour. The receptionist looked at me like I was crazy until I gave her my name. They rushed me back into an exam room for an "assessment". By this point, he was conversing again and hadn't shown any symptoms of head injury. He was still hesitant to turn his head a certain way, but he was actually starting to turn it which seemed to be a good sign. The doctor said he looked good and was probably experiencing some soreness along with the fall. She gave me ibuprofen and sent me home to give him a nap and monitor how he improved.
She told me to wake him up every 1 - 2 hours. I woke him up every 20 - 30 minutes.
When he got up, he was happy again but would cry every time I lifted him. My mom and I noticed that he would start to pick something up with his right arm and then stop and use his left. The nurse called into to check on us. I told them what was going on. They told me to come back in.
There I was, loading up, going back to the pediatrician's office for the 3rd time that day. Little tidbit - if you go to the doc's office more than once in one day, you only have to pay one co-pay. Thank God for small blessings. I wonder how often that happens?
Not a minute after I checked in, the doctor came running out to the waiting room. What service, I thought! But, no. She was sending us to the ER. Back in the car we went.
So, here's another little lesson. Do NOT get hurt on December 13th. That's when all of the hospital staff has their Christmas parties. No lie. I seem to recall the staff on the show, ER, breaking away from their Christmas parties when injured parties arrived to be treated. We literally waited for 3 hours just to get an x-ray. After the 1st x-ray, the tech immediately said, "Oh yeah, it's broken". My heart sank as I watched him point to my son's right clavicle bone.
We walked back to the ER and were discharged 30 minutes later with a new "batman arm" (had to think fast on that one) and more ibuprofen. The 2-yo was proud of his new superhero arm, his batman stickers and even a new car.
So, if I had a rewind button for Tuesday? I would gone out to lunch and avoided ALL medical facilities. But, since I don't have a rewind button, I'm just very thankful that my little 2-yo has a broken collarbone and not a head or neck injury, which was my fear earlier in the day. Because, them bones? They heal and I'm told they heal quickly on a 2-yo. Now, to figure out the secret to keeping a 2-yo "still" for the next 2 weeks....
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