Natalie’s Blog

Okay, let me start by saying that Natalie is OKAY. Repeat, she is FINE! But we had quite a scare…

Tuesday was such a beautiful day that I decided it would be fun to take Natalie for a walk in the stroller. She was strapped into the stroller on the front porch when I turned my back to lock the door. The next thing I knew, the stroller was upside down on the sidewalk. Stupid Mama didn’t put the brake on, and our porch isn’t exactly level.

My heart skipped a few beats as I hoped the straps kept Natalie from actually hitting the ground. But when she started screaming a split-second later, I knew she was hurt. I got her out of the stroller, called 911 and attemted to comfort her. Her nose was bleeding and I feared it was broken. Police and ambulance came quickly (although it felt like an eternity!) and determined that Natalie should go to the ER (duh).

The ER doc and the trauma surgeon examined her and sent her for X-rays and a CAT scan. The X-ray found no broken bones, thank goodness. Unfortunately, the CAT scan showed a TINY contusion on her brain and she was admitted overnight for observation. The doc said the fact that she cried right away and continued to cry as they examined her was a very good sign. He said the contusion was so small that if he didn’t know that she hit her head, he would read it as a blip on the film rather than an actual injury. She has a cut on the bridge of her nose that the trauma surgeon treated with dermabond instead of putting her through the additional trauma of getting stitches.

The swelling on/in her nose caused a lot of congestion, so she had some trouble breathing (babies her age don’t know how to breathe through their mouths yet). It was difficult for her to nurse—poor thing had to stop every few seconds to catch her breath. Once they gave her some tylenol, Natalie was back to her old self—charming the nurses with smiles and laughter. She actually “talked” a lot last night and today—I think she’s been telling us all about what happened to her.

Chris and I stayed with her all night in the hospital and the nurses monitored her pupils and vital signs. She had some trouble sleeping and didn’t sleep more than 2 hours at a time. As long as the tylenol wasn’t wearing off, she was in pretty good spirits, considering. This morning she was examined by a neurologist and a speech therapist, both of whom gave her clean bill of health. The speech therapist actually said Natalie has the “vim and vigor of a 4 or 5 month old”!!! They did another CAT scan, which was completely clear. We took her to our pediatrician after leaving the hospital, who thought that once the swelling goes down she should have an easier time breathing.

Since coming home this afternoon, Natalie was a little more sleepy than usual—little wonder after all that excitement—but is smiling, laughing, and talking like she normally does. She hasn’t figured out that it hurts to touch her face and cries when her hands brush against it. We’re trying to prevent that from happening, but sometimes her hands are too quick!

Needless to say, I feel incredibly guilty about the whole thing and hope that Natalie will forgive me! It may be that it takes Mama longer to get over this than Natalie…

Here are some pictures, not for the faint of heart…

This one was taken 3 hours post-accident. Breaks our hearts, poor thing…

Why do they make the hospital cribs look like torture cages??

My new favorite picture of Chris, all decked out to stay with Natalie during her second CAT scan.

Already looking better and in good spirits the morning after.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 14th, 2007 at 11:29 pm and is filed under Challenges, Photos. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.