Look who's crawling!

Hannah's New Bed

Hannah's been sleeping in her tiny little toddler bed for sometime now, and I've been meaning to upgrade. On Saturday, I found a good deal on a mattress and bedframe, so off we went. I still need to find some "Hannah" style bedding (she's using an old Tinkerbell blanket courtesy of Adell) and eventually a headboard of some sort, but for now, she's happily admiring her new big girl bed. I worried she might have a bit of a hard time adjusting to a bigger bed, since she's rather attached to the toddler bed, but she surprised me with her enthusiasum. Changes can be tough for Hannah, but she accepted it eagerly. She was so excited to sleep in her new bed, she was begging me to tuck her in despite the fact it was still over an hour before bedtime.
It's funny how she seemed to be so big in the toddler bed, I felt like she was just spilling out of it, and now looking at her in the twin bed, she just looks so tiny! Sweet, tiny Hannah, oh, how I love her!
I put the toddler bed away - we won't be seeing it again until Mia's ready for it. I sighed...just can't believe how fast they are growing up!

Mommy broke the baby...

So, I'm always harping on the girls about the need to be careful with baby Mia. She's a baby, she's fragile. You can't jump on her, you can't shake her, you can't beat her with your toys, you can't pick her up without Mommy monitoring the situation...you can't, you can't, you can't! I repeat all the things they cannot do with baby to both Adell and Hannah several times a day. Mostly to Hannah, since she's the typical offender - she just tends to "love" the baby a little too much. Adell understands better about needing to be gentle, she just tends to forget that practicing gymnastics with Mia only a few feet from her is a bad idea.
So, anyway, imagine how I felt when I took a tumble down the stairs the other night...did I mention I was holding Mia during all of this?
Yes, I was running around the house on a Saturday night, collecting trash and toys, grabbing pajamas, running baths, and hastily doing all the usual bedtime routine requirements. I scooped up Mia and headed down the stairs, not paying enough attention to my footing, and then...slip! I slipped, and down we both went. I immediately had that overwhelming longing to take back the last 10 seconds. If I just had been more careful...
The fall was awful for both of us. I was immediately winded and most of my body hurt. I tried to right myself enough to sort of catch Mia as we fell, and even though my body took the worst of it, Mia got pretty tossed around, and I kinda rolled her into the wall with my body. I picked her up as gently and urgently as possible and layed her on her back on the floor, trying to assess the damage. She was crying like she's never cried before. Upon visual inspection I couldn't see anything that looked majorly wrong, like a broken bone, or anything that was bleeding. I picked her up and held her on the couch until she calmed down. We both cried for a while, waiting for the pain to subside.
Wade came down the stairs (he'd been out on a church assignment) and I launched into my horrifying fall. I layed her back down on the floor, and we both probed and prodded her until we felt satisfied that she was uninjured. I thought she might have hit her head, but we couldn't find any evidence, not a bruise or goosebump, or anything. She seemed pretty relaxed, so I decided it was safe to put her to bed. I checked on her probably every hour during the night, just to be sure she was still breathing.
By morning I was confident she was fine. She seemed happy as always, and anxious to have breakfast. I was longing for my more youthful days, when a fall like that was no big deal - I could just brush it off go on my way. But this morning, that young strong body was only wishful thinking. I was sore from the fall. My neck and back ached and my left arm had a strange numb sensation. At least the baby was okay.
I did notice that she cried a little when I changed her diaper. She didn't like it when I lifted her legs up. Hmm...well, I moved her legs around a bit, and squeezed a few areas, but nothing seemed to cause her repeat pain. I mentioned it to Wade, saying it's probably just bruised, like most of my body seemed to be.
We went off to church. Wade took her off to Elder's Quorum while I went to teach my primary class, like every week, but when he returned her to me, he mentioned she was unwilling to put any weight on her right leg, and she cried when he bounced her on his knee.
The rest of the day we watched her. She did seem hesitant use her right leg, but I repeatedly probbed around and moved different areas of her leg, and I still couldn't find the source. Wade was eager to get her to a doctor, he was even mentioning the ER. I decided against it, she still seemed so happy - she was squealing with delight while Adell played peek-a-boo, and she laughed and laughed when she took a bath with Hannah. She's fine, right?
On Monday morning, I felt pretty good about having waited before rushing her to the doctor. She still cringed a bit when I changed her diaper, but she seemed to be improving. We were getting the kids ready to go to the aquarium, as promised for President's Day. Wade was playing on the floor with Mia. All of the sudden Mia began to scream. Not just any scream, but a real, painful, cry of agony! Time to go to the doctor.
We sent the girls off to the aquarium with willing grandparents and went off to the doctor for an x-ray. A couple hours later, the doctor came into the room and told us that Mia's ankle had a fracture. And then I burst into tears. All the guilt and anxiety was overwhelming. I felt like the worst mother in the world! My poor broken baby!
Turns out Mia has what they call a buckle fracture on her right ankle. (Torus fractures, or buckle fractures, are extremely common injuries seen in children and infants. Because children have softer bones, one side of the bone may buckle upon itself without disrupting the other side; this is also known as an incomplete fracture.) It's small, and will heal fairly quickly with no real intervention needed. We can give her Tylenol for any pain and lots of love and kisses. There's really no point in wrapping or casting it, since she's not walking and putting any direct pressure on it. We'll just have to be cautious when we handle her.
So, she'll be just fine. It will heal, and won't cause any future problems, but I can't begin to describe how lousy I feel about the whole ordeal. Not just about causing the break, but ignoring it for two days. The doctor assured me that if I'd taken her to the ER they wouldn't have done anything differently for her, it just would have been a lot more expensive for us and may have involved suspicious nurses looking for signs of child abuse.
So, yes, as Hannah puts it "Mommy broke the baby." I'm so glad she'll be okay. From now on I'll be more careful about where I step, especially on the stairs. I'll also be including myself in the daily warnings about being careful with Mia.