Worst Day of my Life!

I woke up this morning, hoping yesterday had been a bad dream.

We spent all of Wednesday morning in the emergency room with my scared little girl. It all started at about 5am when I jumped out of bed after hearing a loud crash followed by crying. I freaked out and ran to Michael's side of the bed and grabbed my daughter from my husband's arms and held her as tight as I could. At this point I wasn't sure what happened. My husband said he fell asleep feeding her, and that she was on his lap. Something I have warned him about time and time again. Unfortunately, what I had feared happened!

She flipped off of his lap and fell onto the floor. But not before hitting her face on the elliptical on his side of the room. When I was holding her, we didn't know she had hit her face, yet. I wiped her tears and she flinched as I brushed her nose! Oh no, I started to freak. She was having a difficult time breathing and couldn't calm down. She then threw up on me, because she was so worked up. It was slightly bloody from her nose. I ran out of the room yelled at Michael to wake Landon as we jumped in the car. I held her in my arms as we drove the mile to the hospital, tears streaming down her face and mine. I jumped out of the car and ran into the hospital, slightly hysterical.

The nurse took us back while Michael filled out paper work. We were bombarded with questions as they started examining Emmelyn. They immediately said they would need to do a CT scan and for that she would need to be sedated and sent over to the Children's Hospital, about 20 minutes away. All the while my tiny, fragile, helpless baby was screaming... still.  They ended up trying to put an IV in her arm, to draw blood and get the blood work started for the other hospital. The arm didn't work, so they moved on to her foot. They said if it wasn't a head injury, they would have put it in her head! They were able to get the IV into her foot.

Shortly after the IV was placed (which was never used, hooked up to anything, or had blood drawn from) Michael left with Landon to get him ready for school. Emmelyn and I were then lead to the CT scan room, where they tried to do the test on her, without sedation, mind you. She wouldn't stop screaming and was having trouble breathing. Mostly because she was scared and couldn't use her nose, too well. We went back to our room, where they gave her an oxygen mask. Soon the paramedics from the other hospital arrived and put a neck brace on her and placed her into a gurney. She did not like this. At this moment, her IV was ripped out of her foot and was never placed back into her body. Emmelyn rode in the back of the ambulance with the two medics while I rode up front with the driver. This was the longest 20 minutes of my life.

Couldn't he put the sirens on... something! Can't we be there already?! A million thoughts swarmed through my head during that ride. I heard a medic say to the other that her soft spot was swollen. I didn't need to hear that! What if she was bleeding on her brain? What if there is something terribly wrong with my daughter?! I had to stop thinking like that, I kept praying and I tried to stare off blankly out the window. We arrived at the Children's Hospital and found our new room where I was asked a million questions, all the same as before.

Emmelyn was then hooked back up to all of the machines that monitored her vitals. Michael arrived and looked a little freaked out. "What happened?!" he asked as he stared at his daughter in a neck brace and oxygen mask. I told him it was just a precaution and that the mask is helping her struggle less. Guilt washed over his entire face. A four month old looks so tiny in those hospital beds, with cords hooked up all over her little chest, reading her vitals. She had a blood pressure cuff on her left arm and an oxygen reader thing on her foot. That kept falling off. My poor angel. I just wanted to hold her. I rubbed her arm and head and tried to comfort her, the best I could.

It wasn't too long before we were being taken back to the CT scan. They put her into a papoose to restrain her arms. At this point, she was so exhausted; she just let them do their thing. After the scan we were moved to X-ray, then back to our room, to wait. I'm sure it wasn't a long wait. Maybe a half hour at most. But, it seemed like an eternity to me. Our doctor came back into the room and said that the scans were fine, no swelling and no bleeding! Thank God! I don't think I've prayed so much in my entire life. She then told us, that she did have a fracture on her nose. Okay, I was really hoping for nothing but bruising, but a fracture is so much better than all the scenarios that raced through my mind that morning. I could handle a fracture. We were told that as long as she was able to breathe without struggling and eat (and keep the food down) we would be able to go home.

(fractured nose)

(bruised lip)

About an hour later, we were released to go home. Emmelyn stuggles to breath out of her nose and sounds like she is snoring all day (mixed in with a few snorts here and there). But, we're home with our beautiful love bug. She slept most of the day and then I gave her a bath to clean the sticky glue off of her chest and wash the blood off her face and she rewarded me with lots of smiles. You really can't hold kids down. They bounce back so fast. Last night was a rough night of sleep for us, but once the swelling goes down, I'm hopeful that we'll get more than 30 minutes of sleep at a time. I don't think I've put her down for more than 5 minutes since we got home. She's getting lots of extra loving from Momma!

I'm so thankful that my baby girl is going to be okay! Momma loves you, Emmelyn!


P.S. I think it's safe to say, my husband will no longer fall asleep with our baby on his lap...