So. Yesterday.

Yesterday was one of the worst days in recent memory. It all started at 6:30, with a late-sleeping baby and a frantic, almost-late husband (Blake usually wakes up between 5:30 and 6, so we never set the alarm clock.) Blake was unceremoniously dumped back onto the bed a scant 40 minutes after I'd ejected all the male members. He was, furthermore, fed & full of beans.

Now on a good day, Blake will get up at the usual time & go off with his daddy to eat solids, read & play for an hour or so. He will then arrive at my bed ready for his morning nap; I'll nurse him to sleep and the two of us will stay passed out until 9 or so. It's a good system for me because I wake up to deal with him several times in the night, and if he falls asleep immediately, I can get those crucial extra hours that turn me from a surly zombie to a sparkly pixie. (Sorta.)

As you may have already guessed, yesterday morning was to be a zombie day. Which is fine. (Sorta.) I got up with a minimum of grumbling and took Blake upstairs to play while I ate a fortifying bowl of Shreddies. He pretty much has the run of the den level these days; what with the house being built in so many split-levels, I can eat or cook or work in the kitchen while he plays with his toys half a floor down. I was just checking the phone messages when I heard a small but ominous crash. I looked down to see Blake fumble something small into his mouth.

I ran.

He was not interested in opening his mouth for my prying finger, and he swallowed something quickly while I tried to jimmy his mouth open. I saw that he had pulled a small picture frame off the table, and one of the tiny nuts was AWOL. Every F-word you can imagine danced through my brain. I called Poison Control, which told me to get him to the emergency room. And that was the first ten minutes of my day.

The nurses were all very nice, and we were whisked right through the standard "swallowing something stupid" protocol with minimal waiting. It helped that I was calm & articulate; it helped that I had brought the frame with the other nut intact to show the size; it helped that he was a baby; it helped that it was early in the morning; and it helped that Blake was as charming as Satan. (The consensus of the triage nurses was that he ate screws because I wasn't feeding him enough. Ha ha ha.) He was x-rayed from nose to knees and pronounced foreign-object-free in a little under two hours. Overall, I was very impressed by the system.

(Aside: that x-ray was amazing! A perfect assemblage of ribs & liver & lungs & teeth, all shining at me like an enchantment. If I could, I would've taken it home to frame. I can't believe something so tiny & perfect came out of ME!)

We came home & had lunch (he napped while I gorged myself on take-out Greek food) and I was just starting to relax when I decided to hang the laundry out on the line. Suddenly there was no Baby Trekker. And the hospital was decidedly unhelpful, cutting short my descriptions & putting me on hold forever. Finally I just got Nic to drive us back. In less than 2 minutes, I had my Trekker back, but not without entertaining giddy fantasies of replacing it (already! And it's worth it but so damn expensive!!)

The Boy came home at 6 and was utterly sympathetic. He held Blake in the crook of his arm while he cuddled my head to his chest. (Blake took advantage of this opportunity to jam his fingers up my nose.) I took him to the scene of the swallowing, and he looked around.

"Uh, Amoret...is this the nut?"

So at the end of it all, I got to feel stupid as well as wrung-out. Nice.

the nut of doom

Today was a reasonably good day, though. I got my morning nap (to 9:45! Squee!) and was able to make both Baby Time & exercise class. I even have a park date for next Monday! Yep. Life is a pretty sweet fruit.

Of course, the skies could have opened up and rained boiling tar, and I still would've counted it an improvement over yesterday.

blake's reedin'!

uhh...maybe not.

I've completed & uploaded another day of Preacher's Privateers (link in the sidebar). Just thought you'd like to know.

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- Rocketbride's adventure of 9/21/2004 09:38:00 p.m.