Thomas Cash, Drama Queen

What can I say? The kid will put me in an early grave! I went to work on Wednesday and was planning to come home at 2:30 to watch Thomas. Eugene and I had a slight disagreement that morning. I was planning on coming home, and he had called his mom to babysit. I am not real keen on that, but I will explain more about that in a second. So I went to work, expecting to come home to a house with just T and me home.

I get a text message at noon saying his mom and niece are at the house. SIGH!!! I go home about 2:15 and Thomas wakes up. He was talking and babbling in his crib. Eugene's 6 year old neice goes into the bedroom and is real quiet. I go and check on her and she had gotten Thomas out of his crib (How? I don't know....) I told her she was too little and she said that Grandma lets her carry Thomas around (YIKES!!!) To expand on that...his mom does not pick Thomas up, or talk to him, or interact with him at all. Mostly, she watches TV and drinks soda. And eat the center block of brownies I had just made.

I was home all of 5 minutes and all of a sudden Thomas spits/pukes up. But it's not white it is reddish brown. And rusty smelling. It looks like blood and I am kind of freaking out. What happened when I was gone? Did Thomas get dropped? THIS IS WHY I DON"T WANT HER WATCHING HIM!!!!!!

Eugene's mom comments "It's not anything I would worry about". HUH???? (What if I had come home at 5? Would she have even said anything?) He spit up twice, the first time, his bib had about 6 spots the size of quarters on it. I got the bib off, and he spit up again and the entire front of his shirt was bloody (about baby fist sized.) I immediately called the Dr. and he told me to take Thomas to Urgent Care. I get there and they are asking questions and telling me it's probably not blood. Then they test the bib I brought along and sure enough, it's blood.

In about 2 minutes there were 10 people in the room trying to get an IV in and arrangements were being made to transport both of us to St. Joeseph's in Marshfield. Let me tell you an IV in a baby is very bad. The arm vein blew, the foot vein blew, and they finally got in in the right foot. There was lots of screaming and crying (although, surprisingly, not from me). Then we were in the ambulance going to Marshfield. I got to stay in the back. The crew told me they usually put the parent up front because they are basketcases...but I seemed pretty calm. {My basketcaseness is usually confined to my head. I was thinking...."this kid is going to die..."} Throughout this whole drama, Eugene is stuck at work.

We get to Marshfield and a whole bunch of Drs. are waiting for us. The are concerned that he is bleeding internally, but they comment that overall, he is still smiley. T is just smiley...it has no bearing on how he is feeling.

The pediatric gastroenterologist comes in and asks me how I knew it was blood. {It smelled rusty/copper pennyish) Then he asked what I was most concerned about. I told him "Something rupturing at home at 2am and we live 20 minutes from the nearest hospital which is not equipped to deal with babies. Or he has bowel intussusception. (When intussusception occurs, part of the intestine collapses into itself. It folds into itself like a collapsible tube--like an antenna folding up--with one part slipping inside another part. This makes the intestines not work properly. Intussusception occurs most commonly in babies between 5 and 12 months of age. Boy babies are affected twice as often as girl babies. )

He then asked if I was a nurse. I looked at him and said, "No, it's much worse. I am a librarian. I have free time, and I watch the Discovery Health Channel. I realize I am paranoid, but there is something not right with my baby." He laughed and told me that Thomas fit the profile, but he didn't think that was it. He was worried that if he was bleeding and something happened at home, we were too far away for anything to be done if it were serious. So we decided that the best way to make sure nothing was wrong was to scope and ultrasound him. Both tests came back fine. So we still have no idea why he spit up the blood. I am more at ease knowing nothing major is wrong.

Anyways, T wants to give a shout out and a happy birthday to his lactose intolerant homie, Lily. Woo Hoo Lily! Happy 2nd birthday! Present is in da mail....

Here are some newer pictures of Mr. Mischief... The first three he is playing hide and seek...
The bottom one? The kid literally devours books....