First Cast

Skylyn in her hospital gown in the ER
Skylyn still being sweet even with a cast (sitting up)

Skylyn laying down

Skylyn's cast

Skylyn's cast and cast free leg

Never thought that my baby would be the first to break a bone and get a cast, but due to her mommy, that is the case. On Tuesday morning, Feb. 17, around 8:45 am, still in my pajamas and socks, I had just finished changing Skylyn's diaper when I heard the kids playing with the gate at the bottom of the stairs. They were knocking it down. I came to the top of the stairs (Skylyn's room is upstairs) and told them to stop. They were going to scratch the walls or floor. Aaris then started to try and put the gate up, but wasn't being very successful. I became impatient and decided to walk down the stairs and help her. As I got closer to the bottom of the stairs my socks slipped on the stairs and caused my feet to slip out from underneath me and threw me backwards with my feet flying over my head. Skylyn went flying out of my arms. I was helpless and terrified. I picked myself up and went grabbing for Skylyn. I had no idea where or in what condition I was going to find her. She was lying on her back facing me on the hardwood floors at the bottom of the stairs and not taking a breath because she was trying to cry so hard. I picked her up and started screaming, "What have I done to my baby!?!", over and over again. I call a number on the phone but by the time someone picked up I couldn't remember who I had dialed. Skylyn was screaming and I couldn't hear. After yelling in the phone and asking several times who this was I finally heard Aaron trying to talk to me. I had to tell him what happened. All I wanted to do was throw Skylyn in the car and take her the the ER. While I was talking to Aaron, Skylyn eventually calmed down. I had grabbed a cool rice pack out of the freezer and stuck it on the back of her head. Aaron told me to just watch her for awhile since she had calmed down and I didn't see a gash or huge knock on her head. I held her with the cool rice pack for awhile. Aaris had disappeared right after Skylyn's fall. She had now returned with a colored picture for Skylyn and at the top she had written, "You are a star" because she thought Skylyn was brave for calming down so quickly after her fall. Before the fall Skylyn was just about ready to take her morning nap anyway, so by now she was getting very tired. I laid her down in her bed and called my sister-in-law who was an ER doctor but couldn't get a hold of her. I then called my brother-in-law (her husband and Aaron's brother), Alan, who is an ER doctor. He asked me questions and then told me to keep waking her up every 30 minutes or so to make sure she could be woken up. He also told me to feed her soon to make sure she could tolerate it. Finally, I needed to make sure she didn't start vomiting. I did all of this. As the day went on she was still fussy and was starting to not eat well. She wanted to eat, but then would start crying so hard that she would stop. So, after calling the pediatrician and having them tell me she needed to go to the ER, and after my mom telling me that I really should make sure she is okay, and my mother-in-law saying that it would be nice to just know that she would be okay, and my own conscience not at complete peace, I took Skylyn to Dell's Children's Hospital ER. (Thanks so much Shawna Murrie for keeping Aaris and Titus for me!) I got to the hospital around 4:30 pm. They had a little trouble finding her pulse with their 'glow-light' monitor because they put it on her left foot's big toe, and her feet are tiny. After that I got visited by the Child Protective Serves. That was a very hard thing to go through. We finally got to see a doctor. He felt her tummy and looked to make sure all of her arms and legs were moving. He felt Skylyn's head and said he felt some swelling and a little softness on the left side of her head above her ear. It could be a skull fracture, so they needed to do a CT scan. Skylyn screamed the whole time since she was strapped in and her head held tightly in place to keep it from moving. Right afterwards she fell asleep in my arms. Aaron's mom and Aaron had come to stay with us at the hospital and my mom was on the way. It was nice to have them there while we waited. The doctor returned with good news that there was no skull fracture. He released us around 7:30 pm and told me to just give her children's Tylenol for the swelling and pain. Thanks for Aaron's dad who had picked the kid's up from the Murries, Aaris and Titus were in bed by the time we got home.

So, then comes Wednesday. That morning Skylyn's foot tapped a chair while I was trying to squeeze past it to sit down with the kids for a morning snack. She cried like crazy, but I just figured she was overly irritable from being sore from the fall and from waking up early from her morning nap. Then, right after lunch I changed her diaper and sat on the floor in her room to play with her and Aaris. I stood her up because she normally likes to do that for a bit during play time. She wouldn't bare weight at all and just screamed for a couple of minutes even after I sat her back down. I then put the two incidents together in my head and decided to take her socks off and look at her feet. Her right foot was all swollen and a little discolored. I called the pediatrician and made an appointment. My dad had back surgery on Feb. 3 and is just now getting back to work for half days as he recovers. He only works the mornings but wanted to come by and see me since he knew I was emotionally upset from the fall. He was so kind to stay and watch Aaris and Titus for me while I took Skylyn to the doctor. I just popped in a movie for the kids and he was able to lay down on the couch. At the doctor they took x-rays of her foot, leg and hips. The doctor said she thought she saw a fracture in her foot but wanted to consult their bone specialist intern. He was gone for the day, so I had to wait until this morning to see what he had to say. The doctor called me back this morning and said that the intern said he saw a fracture and wanted to send me to a pediatric bone specialist. They might want to do a full body scan to see if there were any other breaks since I have no clue how Skylyn hit the floor. So, off we went this afternoon to see the specialist (Thanks Karen Shelton for keeping Aaris and Titus for me!). They took one look at the x-rays and said that she had definitely broken her bone (first meditarsol) and would need to be put in a cast. For most adults, they would put a half cast on (below the knee and over the foot), but since babies have such tiny appendages a half cast would slide off of Skylyn and defeat the purpose of a cast. Therefore to make sure the cast will stay on an do it's job, they have to put a full leg cast on. Skylyn's goes all the way up to her diaper. Most bigger kids and adults have to wear casts for at least 6 weeks, but since babies heal so quickly, Skylyn will get her cast off in 3 weeks. The bone specialist then just squeezed all over Skylyn's arms and legs to see if he felt anything or saw a painful reaction on Skylyn. He must not have felt anything since we didn't get a full body scan.

It has been a hard couple of days. Physically I'm sore. I have a big bruise on my tailbone and a scrape on my arm and my right leg hurts to pick up. Emotionally I'm spent. It's hard to deal with the fact that I dropped my baby. It's hard feel like doctor's might be thinking that I purposely harmed my child. It's just really hard to see my baby in pain. I'm starting to grow a little numb to the whole thing. I know I still feel guilty because all I want to do is eat. I'm figuring that is just my way of trying to push the guilt down back inside of me instead of dealing with it. So, until I completely deal with it, you all will know how guilty I really feel by my growing waist size. :) But, in all seriousness, I just keep coming back to praising God. He knew that fall was going to happen. He knew that I was not going to be able to hold my baby and keep her safe. He then did it for me. He kept His hand on her when I couldn't. God didn't let her fall first on her head or neck. He let her fall in a way that wouldn't critically injury her. And, for that I praise Him.