What a day.

"You saved her life," the nurse said. "So good you learned those first aid skills." We had to take that class before we could bring Charlotte home from the NICU. I can't believe we put them to good use.

Those were the words of the dr and nurse in the ER yesterday. We saved Kate's life. It sounds so dramatic and the gravity of it all wasn't really known until they said it to my face.

Yesterday, about 11sh, we were all downstairs. And rolling around was little Kate. She's so good. She's sooo good at finding things and putting them into her mouth. A little too good.

We were trying to get Jack down to bed for a nap but first bribed him with a game of MarioKart (he willingly went to bed afterwards, by the way. It does work. he he). Kate was by our desk, choking. Sometimes she does that and is fine. By the time Wade made it over to her she was choking more and more. I thought it was just a little piece of paper that we didn't pick up or that she bit off--she was, after all, on top of torn paper. Wade saw that it was silver and thought it was just a bit of wrapping paper. He could see that it was right at the back of her throat and with his big fingers he was worried he was going to push it down her throat. Of course, I had ran right over to him and Kate. He started slapping her back to knock it out of her throat but it wasn't coming out. Kate was turning blue. He slapped her again and I tried to get it out of her mouth but I couldn't reach it. I was just literally about to call 911 when she got it up a bit out of her throat. Then, all of a sudden it slipped forward so I could grab it. What Wade had seen when he looked into her mouth was only the very top quarter inch of this TV cable connector. It was pointing down her throat in the opposite direction that it is in this photo:

(sorry it's blurry). A Cable connector/adapter.

Kate was so scared. I was crying, she was crying. Wade was stunned. The kids wanted to play MarioKart. Silly kids. ha ha. It was really hard to calm Kate down but we finally did it. I decided, once Jack was in bed, that Kate was tired and hungry. So I gave her bottle, drank most of it, and she fell asleep.

Then off I went to a jean sale at Aeropostale, (yeah, if you're going to have a sale, get enough stock...cause fat girls wanna look cute too!) and I had Charlotte so we walked around and played at the soft play for awhile. Then off to Ross just for fun. PS, can you believe that I was pretty good at not buying anything?? Temptation was strong but we didn't need anything. Anywho. Wade texts me on my way home, about 1pm. Said Kate woke up but wasn't herself and had thrown up.

I raced home and he was holding Missy moo. She looked so unhappy. I was so worried. No fever, nothing. I mean she hadn't been sick today or yesterday...not for a couple of weeks (well, teething but that's different). In my heart I knew it was related somehow to the choking but I thought I was being one of those dramatic moms. Wade and I just kept debating about whether she needed to be seen by a doctor. We called doctors and nurses at the hospital but all they said was that they couldn't give medical advice over the phone. Come on! So I decided to bug my brother who's a doctor in North Carolina- no answer so I left a message. He was able to call back to talk to me about the situation. At that point, I tried to give Kate a bottle or piece of cereal (puff) and she wouldn't even eat.

He said it would probably be best to get Kate checked out. He said her vomiting definitely had a connection to her choking. So off to the ER I went. No foreign object turned up on the x-ray. Things physically looked okay as far as they could see but Kate wouldn't eat at all. And usually she loves the bottle even if she's full. At least she'd loved to try sucking and then be like, oh I'm full. But no, this was different. She just wouldn't eat.

The ER said that we couldn't leave until she ate well and kept it down. We tried juice, formula, pedialyte and popsicles. Finally she drank one ounce of formula, but that wasn't enough. After about 3 hours of waiting I decided to make another bottle. Wow! 1 1/2 oz! They said they wanted to call Primary Children's because of how little she was eating (our ER is not fully equipped since we are in a more "rural" area. ha ha. nice! just what I wanted to hear).

Primary's said that it was an "iffy" situation. She had started acting more herself and had a clear x-ray but was not eating so they thought something serious must have happened or that she's just got a scratched up throat. They wouldn't know until they had a look.

So the drs said we could do one of several things: 1. Go to Primary Children's to have Kate drink barium thinking it would give her adequate time for her hunger drive to increase and then do a scan to see how things look. 2. Have a doctor at the ER put a tube down her throat to pump barium in and analyze her that way with a camera. 3. Wait it out at home and if she doesn't drink, come back to do the procedure, or 4. Wait it out at the ER.

I didn't know what to choose. Since she seemed okay I wanted to go home even though we didn't have final answers. And plus it was date night! So I decided to wait it out at home. Of course, we had to call back 2 hours later to tell the dr how Kate was doing.

Well, she drank 4 oz of milk about 6:30 so I was pretty happy about that. It didn't look comfortable but she was able to do it. She drank okay during the night. She also has drank a few oz here and there today but nothing like she used to. I'm keeping my eye on her since she isn't completely herself. So, that's where we are.

I was emotional all day yesterday and would cry especially at the what ifs. It was a close call with her. It probably seems a bit dramatic to say but when the dr and nurse tell you that you "saved Kate's life" then you realize how close we came to losing her. It was scary. I'm going to be a nazi now with floor time and keeping things clean. I never thought something like this could happen to us, but obviously it can. Last night, our prayers were extra thankful. I am looking right now at her and thinking "I'm never going to complain how fussy she is again!" Because I LOVE that she is fussy. It means it's because she's still here with us. So bring it on Kate. I wanna hear it. I love you Missy moo.