Mother of the year...

I mentioned on Tuesday Bennett's amazing sitting abilities. I spoke too soon...

This picture was taken around 4:30 in the afternoon. We were outside. The kids were jumping on the trampoline. My brother was just finishing some painting on our house for the afternoon. And Bennett was having his first experience with grass. A while later I was inside finishing up dinner and Hallie was sitting with Bennett on the carpet in the living room. I hear him start crying. I keep working on dinner until I hear Hallie's plea - "Bennett won't stop crying will you come and get him."

He must be hungry. So I fed him. Still he's fussy.

He must be tired. So I put him down for another nap. He doesn't ever fall asleep.

He must be so tired he doesn't want to take a nap. So we sit with him through dinner while he was on and off crying. I could tell something was wrong but I didn't know what. Maybe he's teething?

Hallie nervously approaches me..."When I was sitting on the floor with Bennett he fell forward and hit his face." Luckily it was a short fall and padded to say the least. I start to poke at him trying to figure out where his pain is coming from and he seems to yelp with every touch. We decided to get him to bed and keep an eye on him.

He falls asleep but wakes up periodically crying. I feed him at 10 at night and while I was feeding him he was calm. So once again I start to poke around to see what really hurts. When I get to his leg he yelps (just like a dog) in pain. That's it. He had to of hurt his leg in the fall.

The next morning we get into the doctor first thing. She diagnosed it as toxic synovitis - inflammation in his hip from the fall. But she sends us to get x-rays to rule anything else out. We got the x-rays and by this point it is totally evident his hip is in pain. Every time we moved him, he yelped or winced in pain. Unfortunately there was no cure for his problem, only time would help. We went home and started to nurse him back to health. Six hours later I get a call from the doctor - she reviewed the x-rays. He had several fractures (spiral) in his hip. When he fell forward, he must have twisted in the process. I felt awful. He's so little to have such severe pain!

Fortunately, his age limits the type of cast he could have. Instead of a cast, they put him in a harness. (typically used for infants with hip dysplasia). It doesn't keep him from moving it around, but it keeps it in place for the most part. The first day was rough, you could tell from his face he was in serious pain. But each day seems to get a little better. He's sleeping better now with it and we've finally found some positions we can hold him that's comfortable for him.  We call him our little frog!

So there you have it - my campaign for mother of the year!