The Joys of Little Boys

What a stressful night we had last night!

First of all my SIL delivered a healthy baby girl yesterday. 6 lbs 15 ounces and 20 1/2 inches long!! Happy Birthday Catherine!!!

The weather here has been a bit crazy! It is 70's in the day, and getting down to 36 degrees at night. Sunday night when Phil was home we had our first fire in the wood stove. Monday night he was gone and I did not want to get a fire going. But I didn't sleep well that night because the kids kept waking up and my hunch is that they were cold. So yesterday night I decided we needed to have another fire. I began to get it going late in the afternoon as a cold stove takes a while to produce a good fire! About an hour into it I was around the house doing my thing, when I hear awful screams coming from the living room. My heart just sank. I knew Ethan had touched the stove. I ran in there and looked at his hand which at the time did not look so bad. We ran it under cool water several times and let it be. Afterall, this wasn't the first burn I have dealt with. What I didn't realize at the time was that he burned all the fingers on his left hand except for the thumb. The pads on his fingers were burned down to where the first joint is. 2 1/2 hours later he was still crying about it and just wanted to be held. I was torn on what to do. 1. I felt so guilty that this happened 2. I didn't want to run to the ER for no reason 3. I was by myself and at this point it was bedtime for the kids and Phil was in the air on his way home. I did some quick research on the internet and it said that it is very common to see burn in the ER on babies. 60% of the cases are burns. You should go immediately if they had burned their extremities or burns over more than 10% of the body etc. etc. So I made the decision to bring him in. All the while he is in the back seat screaming and Emma in turn is screaming for him to be quiet and how bad he is! I'm telling ya, I was ready to have a breakdown.

Our little trip to the ER was interesting. I texted Phil and told him where we were and what had happened. I got to the ER at 6:45 pm Phil arrived at 8 pm. We did not get in to see a doctor until 8:45 pm, and I was out of there at 9:30 pm. When I got called into the room I knew it would be a while since we had already been in the waiting room for 2 hours. I told Phil to take Emma home, as she needed to sleep for school today. Plus today is picture day! Perfect right....dark circles, bags..all for picture day.
While waiting in the ER alone the kids got SO bored. I don't blame them. Quite honestly so was I. They were playing with those candy machines they have....you know the ones that shoot out a child size handful of M & M's for a quarter. When Ethan say them he pointed and said "mmmmmmmmmm please?" It was so cute. They did end up getting some when daddy arrived! I had brought a sippy for Ethan but in trying to get out the door I did not bring anything for Emma. When we got there and she saw his sippy she wanted a drink.....OF COURSE! I told her I did not have one. She said well I will just drink from the water fountain. NO! NO WAY! I was not about to let her drink from a dirty water fountain in the ER of a hospital.....GROSS! She probably leave there with 1o different diseases! YUCK! So when I told her no, she says to me....."If I don't get something to drink I will probably die!"....yes this is what I deal with on a daily basis! So I looked at her and said "well I guess it's a good thing we are at the hospital then!" Evil I know...but it shut her up...and I know that of course she really wasn't going to DIE from not having a drink for an hour! She did get some gingerale out of the soda machine when daddy got there though.
The of course, Ethan was not crying anymore....it's like they see the Emergency Room sign and then all of a sudden Hallelujah they are healed! Because he was doing good, he began goofing off. Climbing chairs trying to jump off, running away, trying to escape every time the door opened. They staff comforted me, in saying that they usually do stop crying once they get there.

Anyways so Phil took Emma home, and we saw the doctor. He said that Ethan had second degree burns on his fingers, but the skin was in tact and that was good! They did not do anything to it as they knew that babies often unwrapped a dressed hand. They also like to eat things that are on their fingers such as Neosporin. He told me I could sneak it on his fingers at night, but other than that it was good I brought him in but he was OK. Thank God.

The nurse was so sweet too. She gave Ethan the cutest little teddy bear to bring home with him. It was so nice of her. She was saying how much of a flirt he was and how cute he was and the next thing I know she brings him the bear. It was so nice of her.

Now to really make me feel like as ass. Though they said it was going to be cold last night it only got down to 52 degrees! The house was warm when we woke up w/o the fire.

So I have guilt for him getting burned, I feel stupid because it wasn't even that cold (for NY standards) and i went to the ER and will probably have a HUGE bill for them to look and say ....he's ok. Don't get me wrong I am glad it wasn't serious....I just always beat myself up over these things. This will be the most expensive Teddy Bear Ethan will ever get! But we will always have Teddy to remind us of his first trip to the ER. And sadly, I don't think it will be the last!

I just kept saying that I wanted to be at the hospital today (to visit the new baby) just not for a visit like this!

My doctors appointment was cancelled yesterday because my doctor was delivering a baby. I have to go today instead....finish packing...oh yah and pack all the kids clothing for next week. What? I didn't tell you? We are going with Phil on Monday to Massachusetts for the week so that we can go visit the new baby. Phil has a job out there and this way work will pay for the gas, since he is working! I will not be home until 6:30 pm on Sunday so there is lots to do today. Thankfully tomorrow is vacation!!!