Thomas and the Emergency Room

So, I'm all ready to blog about our day at Strasburg Railroad on Friday, and how we took Ben (and Aaron) to see Thomas the Tank Engine. I'm thinking about how it's great Ben is now identifying characters and has favorites. We are able to buy things for him now that he likes, like a coloring book with "Cars" on it, Thomas the Tank Engine mini trains (thanks Karin), Bob the Builder Videos, etc. When I was able to shop for the birthday party, it was cool. Taking Ben to see Thomas was fun. It's been fun mommy stuff...another notch on my "I feel like real mommy" belt. Fun events for Ben's childhood. Well, how's this for a "I feel like a real mommy" moment ... our first emergency room visit.

About 15 minutes after we got home, I took a couple of necklaces out of a container of jewelry cleaner. Ben grabbed the lidless container and before I could get it out of his hands, he shook it, sending cleaner all over his shirt, face, and in his eyes. I had J.R. rush Ben to the sink to spray cold water in his eyes and I called poison control. She told me to put Ben in the bath, dump water over his head into his face for 20 minutes and go to the Emergency Room. So, we did and of course Ben hated that. He was fine for the drive over to CHOP though, and for our surprisingly short wait in an extremely full waiting room. But if he was OK, would I have a story to tell? Of course not.

A doctor took a PH test by sticking a small piece of paper in each eye. We knew he wasn't going to like it, so in order to prepare him, two nurses wrapped him in a sheet like a cocoon. That probably scared him more than someone poking his eye. The PH test came back high so they had to flush his eyes. If you thought Ben hated the cocoon, he despised what happened next. No, I'm not sure despise is a harsh enough word. Anyway, they wrapped him back up in the sheet, placed him on a board and velcroed him into the board. Horrible. He's screaming, I'm praying, and Aaron is not happy either. Aaron finally decides to eat, so at least he's not screaming anymore, but I can't get up to be with Ben. That was a good thing, I guess, because since a nurse (there are now four in the room) is standing in front of me, I can't see the plastic contact lens type things go into Ben's eyes. The lenses are attached to tubes which are attached to IV bags which then empty out into Ben's eyes. He's screaming, I'm crying, and thankfully J.R. is able to stand next to Ben and talk to him the whole time. The nurse in front of me walks away and I can see the saline solution running out of Ben's eyes...into his nose, his mouth, his ears. (I'm thinking to myself "He's going to drown!") The longest 10 minutes of my life passes and the tubes are taken out of his eyes (thankfully the nurse came back in and blocked my view again). They test the PH level again and check for scratches to his eyes. My prayers are answered and he's fine. He doesn't have to go through any more trauma. A Child Life Specialist (counselor) came in and told us he's too young to remember this. Thank God! He may not remember, but I'll never forget the picture in my head.

Ben fell asleep on the ride home, and stayed with us in bed that night. He was fine the next day. I don't know if he remembers anything, and I don't want to bring it up. But I wonder if it taught him a lesson.

Ben's Two Year Well Visit

Yesterday was Ben's 2-year well visit at the doctors. Unfortunately, we couldn't see our usual doctor. She is so nice and has been there while Ben has been "growing up". We did see another nice doctor though, and here are Ben's stats... He is 26 lbs, is 35 inches tall and his head is 19 inches around (all nice even numbers). She didn't give me any percentiles. I answered yes to all the "is he doing this" questions, like, does he say a lot of words & can he kick a ball. He said he's doing great. Next well visit will be his 3-year appointment! Aaron was supposed to have his 2 month visit at the same time, but we don't have insurance for him yet so I had to cancel. Hopefully we'll get an answer back soon so we can reschedule. I had him weighed at my breastfeeding group, and he's 13 lbs and 3 oz. He's half the size of Ben!

Here's a picture of Ben in a new outfit that mommy and daddy bought him for his birthday. The shirt is so outrageous it's adorable!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Ben!

Today is Ben's 2nd birthday! We celebrated while we were on vacation last week in Massachusetts. My mom and I went to the party store to pick out plates and things. It was so fun for me. I used to work at that store (it's what brought me to PA) and see parents go overboard buying party items for their kids. Now I was doing it! Ben loves the movie "Cars" right now, so we bought Cars themed items. I was so excited because I knew he'd love it. We bought the plates and napkins for cake, loot bags and punching balloons. We even bought a "McQueen" cookie because it didn't have milk in it. I wanted a balloon, but the store was out of stock. I was so happy shopping I could have cried. Then, we went to the supermarket to buy a cake. The bakery had a Cars cake! The baker was extremely gracious and made a cake for later that same day. There was even a real McQueen car that came off the cake. I think Ben really enjoyed everything, at least as much as a two year old could.

Ben's cake

Ben got to open presents three times. Grampy came down from Maine on Friday, with gifts from him and Gramy. Sunday, we went to Auntie Linda's and hung out by the lake for the day. Auntie Linda, Nana and Kelley all brought gifts. For the party, cousin Brooke was there with Uncle Joe and Auntie Lisa, Memere, cousin Brad with cousin Daisy, and of course, Pepere and Grammie (along with Mom and Dad). Ben is a well loved little boy. We haven't even seen Grandma and Grandpa yet!

Brooke and Daisy playing with Ben's new track and car sets.

Ben and Memere playing in the backyard.

Brooke taking Ben for a ride in the "Barbie car".

Another allergy

We found out Ben has an allergy to cashews...the hard way. We are on vacation at my mom's house and Ben was given a couple of cashew crumbs last night. He had ONE. I don't think he liked it because the other couple of crumbs he gave back to my mom. A little while later, he was rubbing his eyes quite a bit. I took a look at his face and he was getting welts and hives all over it. Then his whole head got beat red and there were welts all over. He started really scratching his head. I called the doctor's office. The nurse told me to give him benedril. His breathing was fine, fortunately. He did continue to get hives all over his belly, his groin and the backs of his knees were very red also. Poor little guy couldn't stop scratching. Then his eyes became swollen. He looked like a completely different person. The benedril slowed his itchiness. I thought it would put him to sleep, but no such thing. All this happened around 5PM, he didn't fall asleep until 10:30PM. He did fall asleep on his own; he fell asleep on the couch right beside me. I didn't even realize he was sleeping at first. I didn't think I'd sleep much last night because I thought I'd be too nervous that he'd stop breathing. He didn't cough or wheeze before he fell asleep, and I checked on him a few times and he was fine, so I ended up sleeping OK. In fact, he slept well at all....he slept until 10:20AM! Aaron slept pretty much all night too...he also fell asleep around 10:30PM and woke up at 6:00 AM.

Here's a few pics of Ben with his swollen eyes.

Daddy was making Ben laugh because at this point, Ben wasn't feeling very well.