Finger

We had our first broken bone last week. Layla was sitting backwards on the kitchen chair and tipped over. She smashed her right middle finger between the chair and the hardwood floor and broke it clean across, just underneath her fingernail, above the knuckle. So basically the tip of the bone in her middle finger is separated from the rest of the finger bone. Ouchie!

I didn't see it happen, even though I was less than 10 feet away. My back was turned or else I would have told her not to sit on her chair like that! I heard the thud, which was immediately followed by screaming/crying. I held her while she cried and inspected her finger. I figured she had just smashed it good and at worst her fingernail would fall off. She could bend her finger and said it only hurt if you touched it. I made her a super ghetto splint out of wooden skewers and medical tape and she didn't complain about it for the rest of the day.

The first doctor's visit.

The next morning I noticed her finger looked red and swollen and thought maybe I had done the tape too tight on the splint. I told her we needed to take the splint off, but as I started to pull of the tape she started crying, "No, Mom! Please! Please, no!" and I figured it must hurt really bad. I felt awful making her endure the pain while I took the splint off, but I really needed to look at her finger and figure out what was going on.

Once the splint was off she said it felt much better. It was red and swollen, and her fingernail was dark around the edges, but she could bend her finger, so I still thought it was okay. We had preschool at our house soon after this. I made it a point to watch her during preschool to see if she acted like it hurt, but she didn't; she didn't even seem to baby it at all!

The next day (two days after the fall) it was still very red and swollen. Mitch suggested I take her to get it looked at. Our regular pediatrician, whom we love, does not treat broken bones, so we saw Dr. Pace. He looked at it and said he thought that the swelling was from blood pooling under her fingernail and suggested that we soak it in warm water to try and get the swelling down. Also, we didn't know for sure whether or not it was broken because their darn x-ray machine was down! I was slightly annoyed and mostly didn't feel I should be charged for the visit since it was pretty pointless.

That day we soaked it in water several times, which as I thought, did nothing. The next day it was still red and swollen. Funny thing is, she had not complained about her finger hurting besides when it happened and when I took the splint off. So this originally happened on a Tuesday, and now it's Friday and I take her back to the pediatrician because their x-ray machine is working again and sure enough, it's broken! I felt so bad! I totally chalked it up to nothing more than her fingernail eventually falling off and thought nothing more of it since she wasn't complaining.

She looked so little sitting in the chair with her kitty getting her finger x-rayed. She was such a good sport and her usual chatty self with the nurse and x-ray technician. The x-ray tech loved that when he asked if she liked candy, she said, "I loooove candy!" so instead of three suckers, he gave her four. She's cute like that. The doctor said it should heal just fine and gave her a splint to wear with pink tape (of course). She has to wear the splint for two to three weeks. The doc also said if in three weeks she says it doesn't hurt at all, then we don't need to get follow up xrays because it's probably just fine. Oh, and I also talked to them about only charging me for one visit, so hopefully that will get straightened out. They did send us a gift card to the movie theater for the trouble, which is super nice. I love our pediatrician's office.

x-ray.

Now whenever you ask Layla to show someone her finger, she takes her splint off and, unknowingly, flips them off. Ha, ha! It's pretty funny. I'm still pretty sure she's going to lose her fingernail, but now at least we know to be extra careful with that broken bone! When we got home from the last dr visit I said, "I'm sorry, Layla. I didn't think you're finger was broken, but it was!" and she said, "Yep, it was broken. Wah, wah, wah."  :)

The Sunday following the finger incident was Layla's turn to say the Article of Faith in Primary. We practiced reciting the sixth Article of Faith with her all week: "We believe in the same organization that existed in the primitive church: namely, apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists, and so forth." She did such a great job! I whispered in her ear the first half and she repeated it loudly and clearly in the microphone, and then she remembered the second half all on her own! She has an awesome memory. And the way she said, "and so forth!" was so full of enthusiasm in her cute little girl voice that it made the adults in the room all chuckle a little. I was proud of her and I'm glad that from age 3 and up the children get the opportunity to pray and speak in the microphone during primary. I think it's a great skill to learn and easier to overcome the fear when you start at such a young age.

Last funny thing about Layla: the other day I was in Marcus's room and she was in her room. She heard me say, "Marcus, why are you so cute?!?" and she answered and said, "Because, that's how Heavenly Father made him!" So sweet.

I love my Layla Bug and hope her finger heals quick! Though it hasn't slowed her down a bit. She still climbs all over the playground and has as much fun as ever!

pink splint.

Oh, and my handsome boy is 10 months old now. He's been a little crazy lately; waking up every one to two hours ... all night long. Totally not cool. This has been going on for a week now. I figured he was having a growth spurt since he was chowing down. But then I wondered if it was caused by separation anxiety, so last night I had him sleep in our bed with me (Mitch slept in Layla's bed since she slept over at my parents'). And guess, what? Marcus only woke up once. One time! Turns out, he really loves his mamma. And, looking back on it, I realize that before this happened, I tried to start weaning him. I had dropped two feedings a day (the ones when he wakes up from his naps) and he was not happy about it. I think the super cranky / waking up all night baby was his way of telling me he's not ready to wean yet. Now the problem is what to do about it ... I don't want him sleeping in our bed every night and I can't sleep in his crib ... I'm not sure what to do. I can't let him cry it out because while his acid reflux is so much better, it does come back when he cries a lot. Also, he is currently getting more teeth and he has a head cold. So we might have a few more rough nights, but hopefully it will get better soon and he will stop missing his mamma so much at night.

He is also very, very close to crawling. Just needs to get his right leg under him and he'd be doing it. For now he gets around by bum scooting everywhere. He still loves to clap and say, "Aaayyy!" (yay!) and lift his arms up for "so big!". He loves dinner time and claps and does so big over and over while he eats dinner. It's adorable. Sometimes he waves, but he just lifts one fist in the air and doesn't move it. It's really funny. It looks like a superhero pose or something. He loves being startled, especially by Layla, and I love that he loves to be scared because I love to scare people, so it's perfect. Ha! I sure do love his guts, even when he keeps me up all night. He's my cuddle baby and his goofy little grin just makes my day.