On Monday afternoon, I was holding Ally and thinking about dinner plans while Will was getting Sophia ready to go to the park. I reached up to grab a cookbook and was going to lay it on the table behind me and then put Ally in the Bumbo seat. As I turned around, Ally squirmed and fell out of my arms. I dropped the cookbook and tried to grab her, but it was too late. I watched in horror as my baby landed head first onto our tile floor. I knew it was bad, really bad. I heard this horrible blood curdling scream, and realized it was coming from me. I yelled her name, scooped her up, and she began to cry.
Will heard my scream and came running in. Sobbing and rocking Ally on my shoulder, I told him what had happened and told him I thought we needed to go to the ER. As soon as I said that, Ally stopped crying, her eyes shut, and she went limp. Panic took over and I told Will we needed to leave NOW as I buckled her in her car seat.
It was a 9 minute ride to the ER and it seemed like an eternity. I started worrying that she would have a seizure in the car or stop breathing, and it was then that I thought I should have called 911, but at that point we were almost there. Will pulled the car up to the ER and I jumped out and grabbed Ally's car seat. Her eyes opened, but she was glassy eyed and dazed.
I ran in to the front desk, visibly shaking with tears streaming down my cheeks and told the nurse "I dropped my baby!" She looked over the desk and saw that Ally was glassy eyed and was holding both arms straight up. She rushed us back and undressed Ally to take her weight and temperature. Ally started crying and I was SO relieved. The doctor was there within 2 minutes, and after examining Ally quickly, she ordered a CT scan.
Once Ally was back in my arms, she stopped crying, was alert and looking around the room. Sophia lightened the mood by saying "Mommy, the doctors are going to put a baby in your tummy!" The only time she's been in a hospital is when Ally was born, so I guess she thought that was the only thing they do there!
We were called back for the CT scan within 10 minutes. Will and Sophia weren't allowed in the CT room. Sophia could hear Ally crying and started getting really concerned, so Will took her back out to the waiting room and called a neighbor to pick her up.
The CT scan showed a large skull fracture above her right ear, but no bleeding. The doctor said it would heal quickly without treatment. She said that technically she could send us home, but if it were her child, she'd want to be admitted overnight for observation. I agreed that I wanted to stay overnight, but there was no peds service at that hospital. An abulance transported us to another hospital where Ally was admitted to the PICU so she could be monitored continuously. I rode with Ally while Will went home and gathered clothes, toiletries and food for me and Ally.
Ally fell asleep during the ambulance ride, so I tried to make small talk with the EMT's asking if they'd had any good calls. The EMT said that he thought this was the best call of the day because it could happen to anyone and everything would turn out just fine. He said he had dropped his 8 month old daughter a few weeks earlier, but she landed on carpet so was OK. Will met us at the hospital, and the EMT grabbed Will by the arm, looked him in the eye, and nodded at him before leaving. Will said he was shocked that the EMT even aknowledged him, so I told him the story. He was a Dad too.
It was so hard to see Ally hooked up to all the medical equipment, but the nurses were great and she had a blast pulling on all the wires. There was a chair that pulled out to a recliner for me to sleep in. I couldn't get Ally to sleep more than 5 minutes in the hospital crib, so despite all the wires, I put her in bed with me. It was SO uncomfortable and we were right next to the noisy nurses station, so I only got an hour or so of sleep. We shared a room with a 2 year old little girl who had been in the hospital for 3 months. I can't begin to imagine what her mother and family have endured and was so thankful to have 2 healthy children.
The next morning we saw the pediatrician and the pediatric neurosurgeon who both reassured me that Ally should be just fine. The fracture should heal in 4-6 weeks. We were given the OK to go home that morning. I was instructed to follow up with her pediatrician this week and the pediatric neurosurgeon in 4-6 weeks.
Ally is doing great and hasn't even needed Tylenol. You can't see any bruising or swelling. I however am still struggling. I replay that moment and the series of events again and again in my mind. I know it was an accident, but I still feel so guilty. If only I had put her in the Bumbo before I grabbed the cookbook...
Getting Get Well Kisses x 2!
