BOYS!!!

Last week we noticed that C3 could climb the ladder to the bunk beds. This isn't good - he's only 14 months old!!! He would get up there to play with C1 and you could tell he really thought he was a big boy up there. We of course could not let this happen because it's dangerous, so we made sure we drilled the boys on keeping the door closed all the time, or I'd put the baby gate up. This was going good until Thursday. C1 came home from school and I was going through his backpack. C1 came to ask me a question and I hear a series of thumps and then screaming. I realized immediately C3 had been in the bed and had fallen down. This was when I saw the scariest thing in my entire life. C3 was at the bottom of the ladder screaming, his whole head was red and he didn't look right. I was already hysterical, screaming and crying. I remember screaming, "What if something is wrong with him?!" over and over. I tried to hold him and make him stop crying, but he just didn't look right. I held him away from me to see if I could find any injuries - he's never cried like that - and when I tried to stand him up he couldn't stand. He was limp and his head was held tight to one side. He got enough strength to stand, but he couldn't walk, just fell over. By this point I'm already on the phone with the dr, waiting for a nurse to pick up. I was crying so hard they probably had trouble understanding me. He had quit crying by now. She asked the obvious questions - vomit? pass out? etc then asked me to check his pupils. When I laid him down on the floor he just went completely limp again and closed his eyes. I had to hold his eye lids open - pupils looked the same to me. She said not to speed, but take him to the ER. I hate this, but I was so scared to call my dh, knowing he would blame me and yell at me. He did.

They did a CT scan, a couple of nurses looked at him, a resident who wouldn't tell me anything except that by his foot reflexes she could see he had a head injury but she wanted her supervisor to come talk to me. (SCARY!) Dr. Warlick (I really like him!) came and said that C3 was pretty much ok. The CT scan didn't show a skull fracture or a brain bleed. His soft spot is gone, which everybody noticed. He said that it made it a little more risky, but he's ok. He said there is a 4 hour window to really watch for symptoms - we had an hour to go. If we got out of that ok, then C3 would be fine, I'd just have to watch him through the night to make sure he didn't vomit. If so, he'd be right back in the hospital. He is ok, just had a minor concussion and isn't showing any symptoms - pupils match again, etc. Just thinking back to the way he looked and the way he acted makes me sick to my stomach. I was so so scared for my baby. I feel like such a bad mom. I know this stuff happens, but dh says that I should have him in eyesight every minute he's awake. I don't know how to do that. We took the bunkbeds down. They will have less floor space, but at least I took away one danger.

Ok, so two things to say about that horrible night - 1, I'm so glad it happened last week if it had to happen, because if I knew then what I know now about apparently minor head injuries, I would have FREAKED out even more. And 2, C3 is obviously really interested in climbing, getting into mischief, and head injuries. I was baking blueberry muffins this morning - standing at the oven. I turn around and this is what I see:Yep, he climbed up on the kitchen table to get to more cereal. UGH No wonder I have so many gray hairs!!!!!!!