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Journal glh's Journal: Sunday: Quite a scare 15

Journal by glh

Yesterday (Sunday) started out pretty crappy. I went to make coffee in the morning- I had just bought a coffe grinder the day before- and was excited to taste the new brew. A few minutes later, my Mr. Coffee decided to spew out EVERYTHING onto the kitchen counter. Blah. I knew the day was started off wrong, but I had no idea where it was headed :)

We got back from Church and Jen went upstairs to change the diaper. I was up changing my clothes, and I stood in the hallway. I looked into the room and didn't see Kaitlyn. Jen was turned around getting something out of the diaper bag. A few seconds later we hear some crying, and we both start to panic. My wife ran over to the dresser where her changing table is and found her laying wedged behind the dresser and on the hardwood floor.

I was pretty upset and wondered how on earth something like that could have happened. My wife was in tears and pretty shook up. She only turned away for a second, but that's all it took! She looked fine- no bumps, bruises, or anything, and apparently the window sill behind the dresser broke her fall. Anyway, we thought it would be best to rush her to the hospital to make sure everything was OK. We had a pretty rough time for about the first hour or two, just being shook up, going through the "You can't leave her out of your sight" to "I'm sure it could have happened to me, don't feel bad", and finally to "We're going to get a better changing table and always watch her". It's only been 11 or so days, so my wife was still going through some hormonal/emotional things and this was definitely difficult.

Anyway, we arrived at the hospital at about 12:45. After an initial check in the triage, we were seated in a special area (at our request) so she could feed. She fed fine. An hour or so later, we were taken into our room. A Dr. (resident) came by and asked how things happened, and then did a quick check on her. He said everything looked fine but wanted to do a CT scan and Xrays to make sure. Another hour passed, and we finally got the CT scan and XRays. Another hour after that we got to hear from the Dr. that everything looked fine. Then things got a little interesting.

A lady doc mentioned that they wanted to keep her overnight for observation, just in case anything went wrong. Being a little paranoid (I've heard horror stories about social services) I had to ask them why they felt that way. I was thinking "OK, they are trying to pull something". The woman couldn't look me in the eye, she was definitely hiding something. I told her I'd like to speak with the ER doctors because she said they were the ones that felt like Kaitlyn needed to stay. I was thinking "It takes them an hour to see her, we live less than 10 minutes away- there's no reason we can't go home and come in case something happens".

Another hour passes, and they send in a young ER doc. I was a little on the defensive and I asked "Is there anything legally keeping us from leaving here?". He said that he could get a court order to keep us there if he really wanted to. Probably wasn't the best way to start a conversation. He went on to say "11 day old babies just don't roll, there's no way that could have happened!". He was implying that my wife pushed her off, or something. At least that's what she thought. I calmed down a little bit, and I tried to tell him the reasoning for our concern with keeping her over night- we felt more comfortable going home, and we weren't far, etc. He said that he wanted to explain his perspective- and it was basically because they want to make sure nothing was wrong, and have social services check with us tomorrow. He explained it very nicely, and I was thankful just to hear the truth. He later admitted that our Pediatrician (who we had paged) called and said we could stay or go either way.

After speaking with the ER Doc I asked a few questions to make sure my wife would be with the baby at all times (I certainly didn't want to get in an even stickier situation where we weren't with the baby). He said yes. I thought it might be better to stay, since there was a possibility that things could take a turn for the worse-- we just didn't know.

Anyway, about 6 hours later they moved us out of the ER to our room for the overnight stay. Before moving us though, we had some visitors from our church- our old Pastor, his wife, and our new Pastor (Brett)and my close friend. Brother-in-law/sister-in-law also came. Ironically, Brett had a very similar experience a few years ago. His daughter, at the same age, rolled off her changing station and cut open her head. He had a much worse time-- the nurses were giving him and his wife the third degree. There was a priest who pulled away their older daughter (3 at the time) to lift up her dress so he could examine her (this is a catholic hospital). Because of that, he about flipped his lid and they had a pretty tough time. Fortunately for them, their pediatrician (and ours), who is well respected, had seen their first daughter and told the nurses/social workers/etc. to back off bceause they were good parents.

Anyway, we were expecting the worst, but I was trying to be as peacable as possible. Going upstairs to the room was actually a lot easier/less stressful. We had virtually no problems with nurses- they were all very pleasant to us. That night the nurses never even came in to the room once to check up on the baby, which I was kind of irritated by. This morning they weighed her in, checked her vitals, etc. and everything still looked good. Our only concern is a little bump that she has on her right arm- we didn't notice it before the fall. The Dr./Nurses think it might be a cyst or a lump of blood vessles. We're supposed to keep an eye on it.

Later in the morning we had a visit from a nurse/social person, but she wasn't the official child services person. She came in, was VERY nice, asked us like two questions (how did it happen, how is she doing, etc.) and we told her what we planned on doing, how bad we felt, etc. It lasted all of 2 minutes. She said "there's no reason for you to have an interview with child services, everything seems perfeclty normal", etc. Whew, that was a relief.

Around 10:30 our Pediatrician came in and examined her, took a look at the 50 different x-rays they took, the cat scan, and the bump. She said everything looked great, and we would schedule an ultrasound on the bump to make sure it's nothing abnormal. Another Dr. came by, wrote our discharge, and the nurse sent us on our way.

Now we're back home and it's good to be so. I suppose the lesson we learned from this:

1) Never leave a baby unattended, even for a second, 11 day olds CAN and DO roll. (She rolled a few times in her bed at the hospital in fact, little thing has some strong legs/arms)

2) Don't panic/freak out. As a Christian I take comfort in prayer, and having others pray for us. Prov. 3:5 says to trust in the Lord with all thine heart. Often times I try to control the situation, and in cases like this there is just no control to be had, except by God :) I feel that by His grace I handled things pretty well.

3)Accidents happen, do as much as you can to prevent them. I'd left Kaitlyn for a few seconds to grab a wipe before, so it could have been me.

4) Try to learn other than by experience, as much as possible. :) This is a tough one, because experience is probably the best teacher. However, I'd rather take the advice of others such as "never leave a baby unattended" than have to learn it the hard way. And get a changing table with sides (ours was a homemade pad, with no sides).

On with #4- for all of you future parents or soon to be... please heed this advice!!

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Sunday: Quite a scare More

Sunday: Quite a scare

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  • In Sight (Score:3, Insightful)

    by FortKnox ( 169099 ) on Monday June 30, 2003 @01:06PM (#6331886) Homepage Journal
    The thing is, all babies learn new stuff on their own pace. Your baby learned to roll much quicker than most. This kinda stuff happens. This is why you always gotta have a hand, foot, eye on them at all times. Who knows when she'll decide to start crawling, and if you take your eye off her for a sec, she could be at the top of the steps.

    Its kinda freaky, but its something you learn to do. Thankfully, everything is fine, and you have a great learning experience (cause after something like that, you know you'll never do it again) ;-)

    I remember I was playing a game on the TV and my wife was holding joey behind me. She dozed off, and joey rolled over (more than just one roll) for the first time. I just remember looking down and he was right in front of me. Freaky. But after that, we made sure everything was childproof, and we always had an eye on him (now he's practically running).
    • Its kinda freaky, but its something you learn to do. Thankfully, everything is fine, and you have a great learning experience (cause after something like that, you know you'll never do it again) ;-)

      No doubt, I hope we don't have to learn from the "school of hard knocks" again. But I guess that's just part of parenting. Now I think I am beginning to understand what people are talking about with the huge life change... :)

  • Comment removed (Score:3, Insightful)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Monday June 30, 2003 @02:33PM (#6332666)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • Then again, that's why kids are so small and flexible - nature's way of making sure they can bounce instead of break. Sorry to hear about the social services thing though. I would've been pretty irate, myself.

      I am very glad the way babies are designed! The doctors were saying the same thing.. "they're made to take a beating" (no pun intended). I guess the bones in the first couple of months are more like rubber than bone. But I don't want to find out how high the can bounce... :)
  • I'm so sorry you had to go through that unpleasant experience. And the least of it (since she wasn't seriously hurt) was your daughter rolling off the table.

    I think it's horrible that we are threatened at every turn by "officials" waiting in the wings to protect our babies from their parents. How infuriating! I'm so pleased that with faith (and some luck, to be certain!) y'all made it through OK.

    And for the record, I haven't strapped my daughter to her changing pad since she was... oh, about 2 weeks old
    • I think it's horrible that we are threatened at every turn by "officials" waiting in the wings to protect our babies from their parents. How infuriating! I'm so pleased that with faith (and some luck, to be certain!) y'all made it through OK.

      It is definitely unsettling, when people are so willing to have to rely on the government to protect our children. The ironic thing is that the laws that protect are more harmful to the people who don't need the protection, whereas the ones who really do somehow seem
      • Thanks for the tip on the Arnica Montana- never heard of that stuff. Where can you get it at?

        Any place that sells or specializes in health foods, organic stuff, and/or homeopathic remedies would be a good starting point. The phone is your friend. :-)

        ....Bethanie....
  • Joseph fell down a flight of stairs once. Luckily, it was in his doctor's office, so they didn't call social services:) Social services sucks. I've heard BS stories, like yours and some others I'm not at liberty to divulge, where innocent people are harrangued. OTOH, I've see cases where kids are sent back, repeatedly, to drug abusing parents. Most doctors are kinda caught in the middle. Most states (Maryland is one) have an exception to confidentiality rules. Not only can you break it if you think a kid is
    • Being a retired Catholic, I might be able to explain.

      Marriage is one of the seven sacraments. Each sacrament, like communion or confirmation, is another avenue to understanding the nature of God. Think of the Buddhist/Hindu temples, like Angkor Wat, with their many levels and how each level is more difficult to climb. Marriage, supposedly, is reflecting the act of expressing faith to another person completely, totally, and forever, and therefore, reflects the nature of God to man.

      Catholic priests and nun
      • Still sounds like a reach to me. In my premarital counselling (Episcopalean church) it was not only the question of faith, but finances, children, and tons of other stuff.
        • I should have offered a disclaimer. I was married once, but not by the Catholic church. I was too scared to! Ergo, I didn't have to do the premarital counseling so I'm not sure what practical advice they give, but the basic convenant of marriage as a sacrament is drilled in as soon as possible. I'd be really interested to hear what counselling your church gave you beyond faith, finances and children -- if it's not too private, that is.
          • That was really most of it. It's been almost four years, and it turned out to have been lots of stuff Angie and I had already discussed. I suppose the big difference is that the minister was able to give relevant examples from his own life in addition to those of parishoners.
  • So sorry to hear about that. That must have been rough.

    Your story brought back a memory for me. When I was a teenager, I did a lot of babysitting for pocket money, and one was a tiny little newborn about a month old. I put him up on the diaper changing table and then realized I didn't have a fresh diaper. I turned around to grab one and in the meantime, he had rolled over and fallen off the table. It happened so quickly. He was screaming, and I was screaming as I called his parents. In those years, the mid
  • I know what you're going through.
    But take heart.
    Babies are made to bounce.
    Oldest daughter took a tumble down a flight of stairs at a friends house when she just started walking. I so freaked out because Illinois Child Services can be soo flaky. Lizzie was fine though and we didn't need to go to the hospital.
    And just today Vicky the 4 month old threw herself back while I was standing up holding her so that I barely caught her by her ankles.
    All of them have at one point or another given us the shakes to the p

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