Day 56

Here's a true day in our shoes. We had a great day. We got up, went to MyGym, came home - the girls all took a 3 hour nap. I cleaned my car while Pete did some stuff inside. When the girls woke up we all ate lunch and then I decided to take them for a long walk. Pete wasn't feeling so great today so he stayed behind. We walked and walked and walked some more. (I walked - they rode in the wagon...lol). We found our way to Dairy Queen (ours is year round because it's a DQ Grill & Chill). The girls enjoyed some ice cream while sitting in the booth like big girls. Then we made our way home.

We're home and hanging out and having some fun. But it's time to make dinner. So I (being such a nice mommy) thought it would be ok for the girls to watch one of their favorite Kid Songs video's on youtube. We set up the laptop like we always do - on the TV tray table stand thing. Then the girls sit on the floor and they can see the laptop. But that's not good enough sometimes - they need to get up and touch the computer and play with it and get all excited about the animals they see and touch the screen...and so on.

I'm in the kitchen and Pete is in the living room. I hear 'Oh No!' and turn my head. Just in time to see the entire table and both laptops come crashing down. What I didn't see was Hannah under it all. Then I hear Pete say 'I need you NOW!' so I'm there in a millisecond. I see Hannah and pull her out from the mess, look at her and say 'Pete - ice - now'. He's getting something cold while I'm trying to find out where all the freakin' blood is coming from. Blood - everywhere. I didn't see where she got hit so I don't know where to look. Pete is telling me 'the computers smashed her right in the face!' I think she broke her nose. That can only explain all the blood. But I'm wiping her face and it just keeps bleeding. I'm now sitting on the kitchen floor putting ice on her mouth. She busted both her upper and lower lips wide open...and that's where the blood was coming from. As we sit there - I give her a popsicle and Pete puts Emily & Hailey in their highchairs with a pop as well. They're safe & happy and now we can focus on Hannah. We're still sitting on the floor and she has a big gash on her forehead...in addition to a cut on the side of her head, a scrape down her cheek, two bloody lips and we're thinking (at the time) a missing tooth. She's a mess. I'm watching her head swell. I look at Pete and I honestly don't know what to do. "Pete. What do I do?" He doesn't know either. How can he know? Even I don't know.

Ok - we decide that yes she needs to go to the hospital. Now how do we get her there? We need 2 people in the car - one to drive and one to keep her away. I call Little Brother but he's too far away. I call my other brother while Pete calls his sister...we both get voice mail. Ok. We have 2 choices: We can call 911 or we can take all 3 kids to the ER. We choose #2 and we're out the door in less than 5 minutes. Literally - we had all 3 kids in the car, buckled and driving within 5 minutes. This is one time I can thank myself for obsessive compulsive behaviors such as making sure we have a bag packed at all times for situations just like this one.

On our way to the hospital I call my friend Lucy and tell her what's going on. She said she'll meet me at the ER. Little Brother will meet us there as well.

We get there and I take Hannah inside while Pete stays in the car with the other two. We need to know how long we'll be here before making a decision on whether or not he should take them right home. The ER is jam packed. But they take Hannah in right away (apparently she looked bad enough for them to see her immediately). Everything was happening so quickly and there were 3 different medical personnel that came to see her within 5 minutes. During that time one of them said that she may have to be sedated and she can't eat for 6 hours before that happens (so I'll have to take away the crackers that she's holding on to...not even eating). Great. 6 hours.

Pete calls and says Lucy is there. I call him and ask if Lucy can take the girls home, have little brother meet her at home instead of coming to the hospital and then Pete can stay with me and Hannah. Plan works out well. Lucy takes the van with Emily & Hailey. Pete puts Hannah's car seat in Lucy's Mercedes (sweet Jesus she let us take the Benz!).

Hannah gets the A Ok that she won't need sedation and now we're waiting for the ER doc to come look her over. Still not sure if she'll need stitches in her head but all is looking up. Her mouth is HUGE. The nurse comes and gives her another popsicle to keep the swelling down. And her forehead is starting to look horrible. (and I'm starting to feel guilty for letting them watch a show on the stupid computer!).

Pete comes in the room. Then the doc comes in the room. He was amazing - explained so much to us that we didn't know and he was super nice. I thought 'Oh Lord they're going to DCF and take my kids away' but he said 'I see at least 3 kids a day that have something drop on their head from home and this here (he points to Hannah) is exactly the BEST situation you can have in a situation like this one.' She'll be fine. No stitches needed because they might actually cause more of a scar than she will have without them. Her lips will heal and she didn't lose a tooth(poor kid looks like a platypus) and......she'll probably never touch the damn computer again.

THIS is the exact kind of situation where it's different to have one vs 3. These are the days when it's plain hard. We can't just drop 2 of them off somewhere. And we can't have just anyone come take care of them for a few hours. With one...we both would have just gotten in the car and gone. But we had to make so many more decisions in such a short period of time. These are the days that are going to make our hair grey.

All in all - the day ended with us getting home and being able to put all 3 of them to bed (a couple hours late). And thank God Hannah is ok. Because the weight of 2 laptops on her poor little face is impossible for even me to imagine and I'm here to live it. That poor girl. She'll be getting lots of pops in the next couple of days.

Tidbit: I keep a backpack ready to go at all times. ;-)