Perfect Mother's Day Gifts: Hiking Baby Backpack and a Trip to the ER??

My sweet baby on Mother's Day

Well, my first Mother's Day certainly didn't turn out exactly as I thought it would...welcome to motherhood, right? Saturday night, Blake and I noticed that Sydney's casts seemed to be slipping.  The way we could tell is that her thumbs seemed to be disappearing.  The surgeon bandaged her hands and arms so that the only part we could see was her thumbs.  She told us to keep an eye on her thumbs and if they seemed to be "shrinking" then the casts have moved and to give her a call.  Well, Sunday morning (Mother's Day), her thumbs had recessed more, so we gave the resident on-call a buzz.  After about thirty minutes of trying to track him down, we finally got a hold of him and he told us he was in surgery and would have to look over her chart and call us back. 

Late that afternoon, he called us back and had us head over to UNC's Emergency Room.  Not what I was hoping to hear.  Not where I wanted to bring my otherwise healthy baby.  We packed Sydney up and headed down the road anyway. 

Sydney and her dad in the ER

Once at the ER, we were taken right back to a room in the pediatric section.  After taking her vitals and waiting maybe 10-15 minutes, the orthopedic resident we had talked on the phone with showed up.  He actually was able to get in touch with Sydney's surgeon (whom he had been trying to reach all day).  She gave him instructions on exactly what she wanted him to do.  That definitely put my mind at ease.  He did let us know that she wanted him to do a full bandage change...exactly what we had done last Wednesday.  The kicker: they were not going to be able to give Sydney the same medicine they used previously to knock her out because she had eaten too recently.  So the game plan?  Give her a strong pain reliever that also would hopefully relax her.  If it didn't work, we would wait TWO HOURS and then they would give her the gas used on Wednesday.  Two residents prepared all the materials and setup the room so they could each work on one hand, both at the same time. 

So, they gave Sydney the pain meds and had Blake and I wait in waiting room.  The bad part?  We could hear her crying from the waiting room.  Blake did his best to keep my mind off things and finally had me go outside and call my sister.  As usual, he was calm under pressure, a quality I wish I possessed.  I positioned myself so I could see when the doctors finished.  My sister did a great job keeping me distracted until I saw the doctors leaving her room.  As usual, I was able to find a blessing in the chaos: when we walked in Sydney's room, she was laying on the big hospital bed cool and relaxed (clearly thanks to the drugs, but I sure didn't care).  She looked happy to see us and wasn't the least bit upset. 

After waiting a few minutes and being checked one more time, Sydney was discharged and we were sent home.  The doctor asked that one of us sit in the backseat with Sydney so that if she fell asleep because of the drugs, we could keep in eye on her in case her head fell forward.  She didn't fall asleep, but she sure did act like she felt pretty good from the drugs! :)  It was actually pretty amusing. 

"I feel like I'm a glass of orange juice"

"Man, whose idea was it to put this thing on a string?? BRILLIANT!"

"I need to inspect this a little more closely."

Sydney's old cast...they let us keep it.

All in all, not the Mother's Day I was expecting, but Blake certainly helped to make it the best under the circumstances!

Mother's Day gift: a hiking backpack that I can't wait to use!