Archive for March, 2007
Whew…
Natalie is healing up nicely. What a trooper she was through the whole ordeal! Even with her sore face, congestion and difficulty nursing, she was hardly fussy. She’s no longer taking tylenol and is breathing and nursing just fine. Last night the last of the dermabond fell off her nose—looks like she’ll have a bit of a scar from that cut, but I think it will fade as she gets older. The pediatrician warned us that she would likely get two black eyes because the bruising would naturally settle there. She had a little bruising under her eyes, but it faded within a day—not nearly as bad as the doc predicted. We see Dr. Labian again on Wednesday so she can recheck Natalie’s septum to make sure there’s no damage there.
As for me, I’ve stopped reliving the scene before bed every night…now I’m up worrying about going back to work on Wednesday! I know Natalie will be in excellent, loving hands. Nama is watching her on Wednesdays and Grandma Susan is watching her on Thursdays. I just don’t have any desire to return to work, which is surprising to me. But they say that motherhood changes you and boy are “they” right! Who would want to work when they could spend all day with sweet Natalie?
Here are some pictures, as requested by Nama, so everyone can see how well Natalie is healing.
It’s amazing how fast she’s changing…the day before this picture was taken, she had absolutely no interest in that toy, or any toy. But last night she played with it for about 10 minutes! Then she threw it on the ground…but that was fun too.
Natalie’s First BIG Boo Boo
Okay, let me start by saying that Natalie is OKAY. Repeat, she is FINE! But we had quite a scare…
Tuesday was such a beautiful day that I decided it would be fun to take Natalie for a walk in the stroller. She was strapped into the stroller on the front porch when I turned my back to lock the door. The next thing I knew, the stroller was upside down on the sidewalk. Stupid Mama didn’t put the brake on, and our porch isn’t exactly level.
My heart skipped a few beats as I hoped the straps kept Natalie from actually hitting the ground. But when she started screaming a split-second later, I knew she was hurt. I got her out of the stroller, called 911 and attemted to comfort her. Her nose was bleeding and I feared it was broken. Police and ambulance came quickly (although it felt like an eternity!) and determined that Natalie should go to the ER (duh).
The ER doc and the trauma surgeon examined her and sent her for X-rays and a CAT scan. The X-ray found no broken bones, thank goodness. Unfortunately, the CAT scan showed a TINY contusion on her brain and she was admitted overnight for observation. The doc said the fact that she cried right away and continued to cry as they examined her was a very good sign. He said the contusion was so small that if he didn’t know that she hit her head, he would read it as a blip on the film rather than an actual injury. She has a cut on the bridge of her nose that the trauma surgeon treated with dermabond instead of putting her through the additional trauma of getting stitches.
The swelling on/in her nose caused a lot of congestion, so she had some trouble breathing (babies her age don’t know how to breathe through their mouths yet). It was difficult for her to nurse—poor thing had to stop every few seconds to catch her breath. Once they gave her some tylenol, Natalie was back to her old self—charming the nurses with smiles and laughter. She actually “talked” a lot last night and today—I think she’s been telling us all about what happened to her.
Chris and I stayed with her all night in the hospital and the nurses monitored her pupils and vital signs. She had some trouble sleeping and didn’t sleep more than 2 hours at a time. As long as the tylenol wasn’t wearing off, she was in pretty good spirits, considering. This morning she was examined by a neurologist and a speech therapist, both of whom gave her clean bill of health. The speech therapist actually said Natalie has the “vim and vigor of a 4 or 5 month old”!!! They did another CAT scan, which was completely clear. We took her to our pediatrician after leaving the hospital, who thought that once the swelling goes down she should have an easier time breathing.
Since coming home this afternoon, Natalie was a little more sleepy than usual—little wonder after all that excitement—but is smiling, laughing, and talking like she normally does. She hasn’t figured out that it hurts to touch her face and cries when her hands brush against it. We’re trying to prevent that from happening, but sometimes her hands are too quick!
Needless to say, I feel incredibly guilty about the whole thing and hope that Natalie will forgive me! It may be that it takes Mama longer to get over this than Natalie…
Here are some pictures, not for the faint of heart…
This one was taken 3 hours post-accident. Breaks our hearts, poor thing…
Why do they make the hospital cribs look like torture cages??
My new favorite picture of Chris, all decked out to stay with Natalie during her second CAT scan.
Already looking better and in good spirits the morning after.
Austin
We all survived our first long trip together! Actually, Natalie was great. Friday was a very exciting day for her: her first train ride…
…and her first airplane trip! She was very interested in and entertained by all the new things and people to see. While she didn’t nap quite as much as she normally does, lucky for us she did sleep a little, as you can see.
On the plane ride to Austin, Natalie had TWO dirty diapers! She normally only poops every other day or sometimes every third day, but of course when we’re 30,000 feet in the air and in close quarters with lots of strangers, she pooped twice. Chris the champion dad changed her both times. The plane wasn’t even equipped with a changing table, so he had to lay her across the (closed) lid of the toilet in the tiny airplane bathroom and balance her through turbulence. Thank goodness we have a very study, waterproof changing pad!
And on the plane ride home, she had a really dirty diaper that leaked (also known as a “blow out”) onto her pants! We were descending (seat-belt sign lit) so we had to wait until we landed to change her this time. We stuffed a burp cloth in her pants to avoid any further leakage. It must be something about air pressure…
Here’s a picture of Natalie dressed up for the South by Southwest Web Awards Ceremony. Cute, but she didn’t actually end up wearing the dress because I thought she’d be too cold (it was raining out).
Unfortunately, buzzfeed.com did not win the best blog award, but they did have a successful promotional party.