Monday, October 6, 2008

An eventful evening full of guilt


It started out a great, normal day. I felt motivated to do things - get the kids dressed, clean up breakfast dishes, empty the dishwasher, make the beds...I felt good. We went to the library to get some new books, and I checked out a couple Christmas/holiday cookbooks. (I'm having Thanksgiving here and my sister and her family are coming, and I'm so excited to do a real, huge meal by myself for the first time!) We spent the uneventful afternoon reading, eating lunch, the kids taking naps while I read my cookbooks...nothing big. Andrew came home at about 3pm, and a little bit later (after I had procrastinated going grocery shopping all day because I didn't want to go alone with the kids), he went shopping for me. I gave him my list, and off he went. Dinner was in the oven, so I started cleaning up and vacuuming the downstairs. Leighton was sleeping, but Eva was down with me. She loves to chase the vacuum.

After I finished, I decided to play with Eva. We started playing around on the ground, and she was laughing pretty hard. I picked her up by her wrists and swung her around in circles. We were having a great time. A few minutes later she started crying. I read her some books and she calmed down. But everytime I went to put her down to get something done, she started crying again. I noticed she was holding her left arm up against her body and was cradling it with her other arm. I watched her for a few minutes while reading to her and saw that she was in pain. After thinking back, I realized that I had probably hurt her arm while swinging her around. After Andrew got home, I told him I thought I had pulled it out of the socket. It obviously wasn't broken, but there was something wrong with it.

He took Eva to the hospital and, during the process of trying to give her an X-ray to see what was wrong, she somehow struggled and fought it hard enough that she popped it back into place by herself. They are still there right now, as they had to wait for the doctor to look at the X-rays to confirm that she's back to normal. Andrew said she's moving it around just fine now - holding Henry and pinching Andrew's arm because she's mad and tired and wants to go home.

I feel so horrible that I hurt my baby girl! I cried after they left for the hospital. It was obviously an accident, but I still can't believe I was so stupid. (Please, no comments about how foolish I was to play with her like that. I feel bad enough as it is.) I know accidents happen and parents accidentally hurt their kids (like the time my dad ran over my sister's foot with the car!), but I still feel so bad. I just want them to get home so I can cuddle her and tell her how sorry I am. Poor girl. Good thing she's such a fighter - she didn't even have to have the doctor snap it back into place. She handled it on her own. :)

3 comments:

AnnEE said...

Oh Steph, I'm so sorry! That is horrible for you. I'm actually planning on writing a blog on hurting your kids in just a little bit....I feel your pain. You're a great mom!!

Samye said...

Don't feel bad...I have been there and done the exact same thing. Except I just told Halle to buck up....THEN i took her to the pediatrician.

The Millers said...

I know how bad you feel!! I have a good friend that recently was playing with her little boy doing the "superman launch" she was laying on her back with her feet in the air and he would lay on him tummy on her feet - (are you getting the picture? that's kindof hard to explain) anyway... he was flying like superman and she would launch him across the room - her husband had just said stop before he breaks his arm (he's a nurse a primary children's hospital) she sent him flying and SNAP his arm broke - both bones! She still hasn't gotten over it. So feel lucky your cute little Eva didn't leave in a cast - it makes it tough to tell people what happend : )