March 2013

March brought us the scariest moment in parenthood so far.  Laurel got a hold of Todd's gun cleaner.  We are not sure how much she consumed but her breath smelled terrible and she was visibly shaken and upset.  I called poison control and while I was explaining to them what the bottle said I started to get very concerned.  The bottle said that it could be fatal and not to induce vomiting.  As soon as I saw this, I told poison control we were on the way to the ER.  While frantically getting her into her car seat she started to vomit and all I could think of was "What harm was it doing to her coming back up?"  We quickly made the decision to go the the Jessamine Co. ER instead of UK.  I honestly thought she may die and I wanted to get to the closest place that could stabilize her.  Todd dropped me off at the door and I rushed in and was immediately taken into a room, all the while two nurses reassuring me that she would be ok.  We gave her a bath in the sink (Laurel loved it).  The doctor came in soon after, seeing him took a huge weight off my heart.  I had graduated with the doctor at Asbury and just seeing a familiar face caring for my girl was so calming.  My Aunt Mary and Uncle Paul showed up to keep us company and the distraction was just what we needed.  Uncle Paul was busy blowing up gloves for Laurel :).  They left after about 2 hours.  The doctor wanted to keep up for a little more than 4 hours to do a chest x-ray and make sure her lungs were clear.  The cleaner she drank is a hydro-carbon, like gasoline.  It can be fatal only when it gets into lungs.  It can interfere with the lungs absorbing oxygen.  Thank God, she did not get any into her lungs when she was throwing up.  This experience was just a reminder of how fragile we are as humans, and that life is not a guarantee.  We MUST look at every day as the last, our next minute could be our last. 

We were able to go serve with our Life Group at Catholic Action Center in Lexington.  

It is always crazy how serving others, actually ends up feeding our own souls.

On the 20th Laurel had her 20 month checkup.  She was 31.25 inches tall (73%), 21 pounds 13 ounces (32%), and noggin size of 47cm (79%).  Then on the 25th her top left canine, then on the 26th her right one came in.  By this time she was saying momma, dadda, this, that, yes, no, mease (please), uhoh, and understood about 90% of what we were saying to her.  On the 30th her bottom right canine came in.

Laurel with her new slide

Laurel and I drove back down to Ooltewah with my Aunt Mary and Uncle Paul.  They were going to visit their son in Mississippi and had offered to drop me off on their way.  Laurel got very sick that first night, crying for hours on end.  About 3am I decided I needed to take her to the ER, yet again.  I woke up my parents and they got up with me and started driving to Chattanooga.  On the way I called our pediatricians nurse line and the nurse suggested to go get a suppository before going to the ER.  Within about 15 minutes she had pooed and fallen asleep.  The last day she was feeling well enough to get out and go, we went over to Collegedale to feed the ducks.

On the 28th we flew out to San Antiono again to be with the Banuses for Easter!  The weather was beautiful and we got to go see all kinds of animals at the polo club, take some family pictures in the blue bonnets, had dinner at the food trucks, and helped Papi plant a laurel tree.  We took a trip out to the McMillans where Steve took Laurel to get some fresh eggs and visit the chickens.  Laurel thought the chickens would want their eggs back so she kept trying to hand the eggs back to the chickens.  On Easter we went to church and met some more animals.  She fell in love with the Easter Bunny...  she would not let go of that poor persons neck.  After church we went back to the house for some cake decoration and an egg hunt. 

Byebye TX