Jadens Journey

On Tuesday evening we had a visit from Neville’s Mom, Dad, Aunt and Uncle to see our house and visit with us and Jaden. It got a little more hectic than usual at one point, and next thing I hear *clomp, clomp, clomp, clomp, bang.* I immediately thought “what was that?!” and in the same thought “where’s Jaden?” 

Somehow our trusty gate was not closed and our little adventurer decided to try to take the front hallway stairs by himself. Those are the stairs that are hardwood – very hard hardwood. When I ran in to see if he was okay, he was face down on the floor. He started crying almost immediately after the fall (I guess it first startled him enough that he didn’t know what happened), and when I picked him up it looked like he had a dent in his forehead. A little ice (which necessitated a fight with Jaden since he HATES having the ice pack on him…. like mother, like son with that one) and the dent went away, the bump went down, eventually the crying stopped, and he acted fine the rest of the night.

Jaden does fine going UP the stairs on his own. The problem is that he doesn’t realize yet his legs aren’t long enough to reach the next step when he tries to go DOWN the stairs. Neville had left the kitchen area where everyone was congregated to show his uncle around the house, so I’m guessing since the gate wasn’t up Jaden decided to follow his Dad. I suppose he went up a few steps, realized he wasn’t going to find his Daddy, and decided to turn around and go back into the kitchen with everyone else. 

Now, I did say everything was fine that night, but the next day I had the scare of my life. Jaden was acting fine when he woke up but then around 9:00 a.m. he started getting lethargic, which is unusual for my very active son. He kept wanting to sit in my lap and do *nothing* which is another sign that something is wrong. Then around 10:30 he fell asleep and I couldn’t wake him up easily, and when I did manage to rouse him he wanted to go right back to sleep. I called the pediatrician and they said “get him to the Children’s Hospital emergency room right away -we’ll call and let them know you are coming.”

“thump-thump, thump-thump, thump-thump, thump-thump” that’s the sound of my heart beating 10 times quicker than normal… I drove as calmly as I could to the hospital, and even managed to keep the swear words to myself when an 18-wheeler semi decided to change lanes ON TOP OF ME and I barely got out of the way by swerving into the breakdown lane. 

Now I’m really frantic…

A half hour to the hospital and insanity finding parking (there’s no ER parking in the “city”!) and then another 3 hours getting our blood pressure, weight, etc. done, then waiting, then filling out paperwork, then waiting, then seeing a nurse, then waiting, then finally seeing a doctor, and waiting again for them to discharge us. The whole time they asked us not to feed Jaden or give him anything to drink in case the doctor wanted to run certain tests. So the poor baby didn’t eat from 9:00 in the morning until 3:30 in the afternoon. He was a *little* cranky by then. Neville took the afternoon off from work and met us at the hospital around 12:30 – thank goodness for that because I was a basket case by then.

After all of the waiting we find out Jaden is okay. He started acting “normal” again after the first half hour at the hospital and the doctor said if there’s anything to worry about he would have gotten progressively worse, and not shown any signs of being ‘normal’ or ‘better.’ This was good to know. Thankfully I had the wherewithal to throw some food into the diaper bag so while we waited form them to discharge us we were able to feed Jaden. They finally discharged us, and we raced home to eat.    

We learned a very good lesson. Hopefully Neville will not disappear again without letting me know. I won’t ever let my eyes off of Jaden again no matter what distractions are tugging at my attention, and anyone who leaves the gate open again is —- well I can’t think of anything that’s not too evil to print, but I’m sure I will if it happens again (yes, Neville, that includes you!)… tee hee.

About Jaden's Journey, Everything else ER, falling, hospital, stairs

Jaden is giving new meaning to the word “toddler.” Once he learned to walk he decided he wanted to run instead. The word of the month has been “SLOWLY.” We know he understands slow versus fast, thanks to Elmo (See! TV isn’t always bad).

We have seen more slips and falls in the past couple of weeks than I can count. He took such a bad spill yesterday on the hardwood floor in the kitchen that I thought I’d be taking him to the hospital (again!) and that they’d think I was purposely whacking him on the head – I mean, how often can a child fall before they start to think that you have something to do with it?

Today Jaden rounded the desk in the kitchen, clipped it with his foot, and landed so hard he gave himself a bloody nose. Thankfully Neville was still home. My ability to think during crisis was stripped from me the instant I became “Mom.” I don’t know what it is, but I go blank. I think to myself “I should know what to do – I can do this – what do I do?” — and then I scream “honey?! Help!” or I call my Mom who seems to have all the answers. Thank goodness someone can think clearly.

Part of the problem is that we don’t have shoes right now that fit him well enough to have him wear all day in the house, and his socks are just not doing the job on the hardwood floors. I measured his foot the other day, and it is no wonder his size 5 wide shoes no longer fit— he is now a size 7 extra-wide. Just a little growth spurt!

I ordered some shoes online (I rarely buy anything at the stores these days – even groceries are delivered to the house) and they were shipped out today, so I’m praying they’ll help eliminate some of the problem. On the other hand, Jaden’s imperfect balance, his desire to move through inanimate, dense, immovable objects, and his unwillingness to walk (not run), will remain for quite some time. God willing, I’ll recover a few brain cells at the times I need to deal with the bumps and bruises that are still to come.

Everything else bloody nose, falling, running, toddler, walking