PSA

So, we had a rough weekend. Like, actually horrible! And I feel SO dumb and SO embarrassed to even be sharing this, but it needs to be said anyways. You'd think after all we went through with our car accident that I would be taking EVERY measure to keep my kids safe. Well, lesson learned I guess.

So on Sunday morning, Lennon was almost ready for a nap but I wanted her to stay awake a little longer. So I decided to start getting things ready for a salad I was making for a dinner we were going to that night. It was just after 9 in the morning and I put Lennon in her bumbo chair on our counter and started cutting veggies up. I was literally 6 inches away from her. I turned for 1, maybe 2 seconds and the next thing I hear is a huge THUD. I quickly whip around and see that Lennon somehow managed to fling herself off the counter still in her bumbo. She landed face down on our hard laminate flooring. I instantly grabbed her and she was screaming! I tried calming her down for 10-15 mins, tried giving her a bottle etc but she was not having it. This is VERY unlike her. Even though it was a huge fall, she's very easily calmed down. I decided to run her up to the hospital in Raymond.

The nurses were very nice and got me in right away. We were quite the site; Lennon screaming and me bawling. One nurse told me this had happened to her son too. Another told me "this isn't the first time this has happened and it won't be the last time either". This statement made me SO sad! It was definitely meant to make me feel better but I didn't want any other mom to have to feel like this! Holding my screaming baby, who literally very rarely even cries, knowing I was the cause of her pain! We've all heard stories of babies falling out of bumbo's and every time I've heard them I've thought "Who the heck is dumb enough to leave their baby unattended in a bumbo!?" I knew it was common sense to not leave them unattended. In fact, a few days ago she was in her bumbo on the counter and I had to leave the room so I moved her to the floor. But for some reason, it never occurred to me that babies could still fall out of their bumbo's even when you are RIGHT beside them!!

After just under 2 hours in the Raymond hospital and Lennon still not calming down they decided to have us go to Lethbridge to be checked out by a pediatrician. I had been holding her for 90% of the time we were in Raymond. I had asked if maybe she had a broken bone? Because it really just was not like her to keep crying. The nurse and Dr told me babies bones are still very pliable at this age so it was very unlikely. She said it looked like she was moving all her limbs but that I knew her better than she did so to let her know if I saw any changes. Well, I decided to lay her down and watch her. And my arms were numb by this point and I didn't want to drop her again. While she was laying I noticed she wouldn't move her right leg at all. She was still screaming and pulling her left leg up towards her tummy but she wouldn't move her right leg. She had it extended and stiff but wouldn't pull it up. After we got our paperwork I headed home and grabbed the rest of my family. We dropped the kids off at Scott's parents house and then Scott and I headed into Lethbridge.

The nurses there were great as well. Lennon had finally fallen asleep in the car and was calm for the first few minutes we were there. She hadn't eaten anything since 5am that morning (I was planning on feeding her before I laid her down for her nap at 9:30 like I usually do). Every time I tried feeding her though, it would just make her more upset. So after a few minutes of her screaming in the waiting room (Which was packed!) They moved us into a secluded room off of the waiting room. I got her to fall asleep but then there was a loud noise when a door closed and she jerked in her sleep and then started screaming again. She was very unsettled. She'd sleep off and on and keep waking up screaming. We were shortly moved into another room where the pediatrician came and checked her over. When we got her out of her jammies she actually started moving her right leg again. I kind of feel like her hip might have been out and that when I bent her leg up towards her tummy to get it out of her jammies it maybe popped it back in again or something. Because she really wouldn't move it for a few hours before that. They gave her some advil and it seemed to calm her down pretty quickly. She had also been given tylenol in Raymond but that hadn't really seemed to help at all.

We waited for quite awhile in that room waiting for her to get an x ray. They came in to take her at one point but she had fallen asleep so they decided to wait. She woke up shortly after though and was still screaming off and on. Finally she got her x rays and then we were taken upstairs to the pediatric unit where we were going to stay for 24 hours to monitor her for a brain bleed or any swelling. It was close to 3 ish when we were finally taken to our room. So she had been sad and screaming for quite awhile. Once they had given her the advil and taken us to the room she seemed a lot more settled though and only improved from there! The x ray's came back and there were no fractures. She still wasn't eating at all. She went 14 hours without eating. During the night though she started taking her bottles again. All her vitals looked good and she was continuing to be fairly content.

She had a pretty restless night and tossed and turned a lot. It was very loud all night with crying babies/toddlers and just the normal hospital noises. Pretty sure I had 2 hours total combined sleep. If it's any indication of how exhausted I was, I had been up with Lennon from about 2-4, she was like 60% asleep but every 15 or so minutes would wake up crying and needed her soother put back in. Finally at 4 I was able to rock her into a deep enough sleep that I could go lay down. She woke up again at 5 and I know I didn't fall asleep right away, but sometime in those like 45 mins I fell into a DEEP sleep because I am usually the lightest sleeper on the planet but a nurse had come in and raised the side of her crib higher and had probably checked Lennon's vitals as well and I had not heard a single thing!

We had 3 different and amazing nurses. Katie, Leona ( I think!? She had a student with her too), and Loretta. They were all so kind to me! Lennon's normal pediatrician was at the hospital the next morning and came and saw us around 11 and then we were ready to head home! Loretta was the nurse discharging me and in the discharge papers she was going over how to watch for change in consciousness, and other things to look for. There was another section about safe places to put babies and neglect and she was like "I'm just going to skip over this part, I can tell neglect was not a part of this accident and you were just a mom being a mom. This is just in here because there are certain situations where it would be neccessary". Papers had been nonchalantly placed by the sink when we had first been in the room as well, talking about how to avoid risks of falling etc. And no one had even pointed them out to me or gone over them with me. It was nice that it seemed no one really thought down on me or that I had maybe intentionally hurt my daughter. Because I had made myself feel pretty bad about it anyways. It's just such a horrible situation! If I had put her to bed first before starting to make the salad, it would have been a completely different day. OR if I had put her on the floor in her bumbo instead, again, it would have been a completely different day! I hated knowing she was in so much pain because of a lack of good judgement on my part.

So everybody and anybody who has a baby or knows someone with a baby, PLEASE tell them bumbo's are NOT safe on counters, EVEN if you are literally RIGHT there beside them!