A black eye for Christmas??

Ainsley may get one thing for Christmas that wasn't on her Christmas list, and that's a black eye.  She could possibly even have two black eyes.  It all happened Monday night.  Joel had a supper meeting and had just got home.  Ainsley was running in the kitchen after Joel walked in the door, and Joel and I watched her, as if it was in slow motion.  She was running and tripped over a leg of her high chair.  She fell on her knees first and then from her knees, face first onto the kitchen tile floor.  I'm talking about a total face plant.  She immediately started screaming. 

I didn't even look at her, but just picked her up and started hugging her.  I was too scared to look at her, worried I would see blood.  I know I've said this before, but the part of parenting that I cringe each time I think about has to do with my child getting hurt or blood coming from my child.  I can't handle it!  That's why I'm an accountant and not in the medical field, I suppose.

After a few seconds of hugging her, I finally pulled her away to look at the damage that had been done.  At first all I saw was blood (and quite a bit!)  Joel had gone into the bedroom by this point to take off his shoes or something, and I yelled back to him that I needed a rag.  He came running in with toilet paper!  That toilet paper wasn't going to get us very far!  Once I calmed down enough to actually look at where the blood was coming from, I could see that it was coming from the bridge of her nose, right in between her eyes.  Not only was there blood, but it was already bruised and swollen.

Joel came back in, with a wet rag this time, and immediately asked if her nose was broke.  It looked that bad!  Of course, that's not the thing to ask this crazy, over-hormonal pregnant mother.  I was crying at this point, Ainsley was still crying, and Joel and I were looking at each other asking ourselves if we needed to go to the emergency room.  I took a picture of her nose, and asked Joel to send it to his Aunt Wendy while I texted it to my Mom.  I don't think Joel ever sent it to his aunt, but I was able to get ahold of Mom who had just left work.  She was at Murrayville, but turned around to come back to check on Ainsley.  By the time I got off the phone with Mom, Ainsley had stopped crying and was chewing on a frozen teething ring.  The bleeding had pretty much quit, and she was content.  That made us feel a little better.

In the fifteen minutes it took Mom to get here, the swelling went down a little, but she still looked pretty bad.  She was breathing out of her nose okay, so we didn't think there was any reason to take her to the ER.  Thank goodness Mom was able to come over.   The reassurance that Ainsley would be okay was what we needed to hear!

All smiles...even with a bloody/bruised nose

There was no way our little girl was going to sleep in her crib by herself that night.  It didn't take her long to fall asleep, either.  Of course, Mommy and Daddy didn't get much sleep that night with a little girl in between us all night kicking and hitting us, but I don't think either of us cared very much.

I don't know why Ainsley had to get my clumsiness, out of all things, but she did.  I don't think it helps that she literally RUNS everywhere she goes.  My child doesn't know how to walk.  She's such a daredevil, and has yet to actually hurt herself doing one of her own stunts, but somehow manages to hurt herself by just walking/running. 

Her nose looked a little better yesterday, but today the bruising has moved even closer to her eyes.  Both eyes are pretty black by the inner corner.  She doesn't act like it hurts her, which is a plus.

You would have thought she may have fallen while trying to wear my shoes, but she can do that fairly well.  She loves to put on my shoes, or Joel's boots and try to walk around with them on.  She'll even go to our closet and get Joel's cowboy boots out, carry them into the living room or kitchen, and try to put them on.  Joel got home yesterday and found his boots in the bathroom and just laughed and said:  "I see Ainsley's had my boots again." 

Just putting on Mommy's shoes again...

One thing I forgot to mention in my last post was hives.  A few weekends ago, I was changing Ainsley's diaper after she woke up from her nap to find hives on the backs of her thighs and on her butt.  She's never had hives before, and of course, my first question to Joel was:  "Do we need to take her to prompt care?"  We had no idea why she had them, but they didn't seem to bother her and were gone in the hour.  We didn't see them again until the next day, and again, it was after her nap.  We thought maybe she was getting hot while sleeping and that's what was causing the hives.  I didn't see them again until a few days later, again after she woke up from her nap and I was changing her diaper.  This time, they were on the front of her thighs.  I called Joel and we both thought since they weren't bothering her and they went away that we didn't need to call the doctor.  I had actually forgot about them, and left for Dallas.  Saturday morning, Mom called and said Ainsley woke up with hives all over her legs.  I then told her that she'd had them a few times over the last week and it was always when she woke up from her nap.  Mom said she stripped her down and they were only on her knees and upper legs, and that they went away after awhile.  Mom mentioned them to Kathleen when she dropped Ainsley off with her later that morning, and as Joel and I are driving to Kathleen's that night to pick up Ainsley, Kathleen calls.  She said that Ainsley woke up from her nap with hives.  This time, they were on her back and stomach.  Again, Kathleen said that they didn't seem to bother her, but wanted to make sure (like Mom) that she hadn't given anything to Ainsley that she might have been allergic to.

I decided it was probably time to either take Ainsley to prompt care or try to get in touch with the tele-nurse through our pediatrician's office.  I called the doctor's hotline and was able to get a nurse to call me back.  The nurse said she'd been doing her job for over 20 years and I had her stumped.  Really?!  Me too!  The nurse said that what I was describing was definitely hives, but the fact that they didn't itch or hurt was weird.  It was also strange that she only had them after waking up, and not every time.  We hadn't switched diapers, laundry detergent, or anything like that, so she was completely lost.  She said as long as Ainsley didn't start running a fever, she would just keep an eye on it and call Dr. Johnston's office on Monday morning.  Of course, Ainsley didn't have any hives on Sunday, and hasn't had any yet this week.  I also didn't get Dr. Johnston's office called on Monday, and don't think I need to now that it's Wednesday and we've been hive-free since Saturday.  I guess it's just another one of those "strange" things that my daughter has!

We had our first snow this winter on Monday morning.  It snowed for a good 4-6 hours and the snowflakes were huge!  Unfortunately, Ainsley was at Lisa's that day, so I wasn't able to take her out and play in it.  Hopefully we'll get out the next time!

I've been making Christmas candy, cookies, etc. for the last week or so.  Who needs a dog in the house, when you have Ainsley?  She was right at my feet one night eating the popcorn that I would drop on the floor.  At least I didn't have to worry about cleaning up!

I know I have a ton of pictures of Ainsley after she's fallen asleep eating, but it's a common occurrence around our house.  She fell asleep the other night with her hand still in her spaghettio's!

Another thing Ainsley enjoys doing is brushing her teeth.  She'll even get toothpaste out of the drawer and act like she's putting it on her toothbrush.  Of course, when I try to brush her teeth good, she doesn't let me, but I figure the ten times a day she goes and gets her toothbrush out of the drawer and brushes her own teeth makes up for what I don't get.