Sweet Big Brother

I was telling my mom that the baby was kicking. Ford came over and started singing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star to my belly. So, so sweet.

Double Trouble

We had a busy Saturday planned on the 13th. Ford's friend, Tyner, had a birthday party that morning and then we were going to the Pewitts for a cook out after Ford's nap.

We got home from the party and put Ford down for his nap. I was in the middle of making a side and some cookies to take to the cookout when I heard Ford scream. The first time Ford yelled, I wasn't sure something was wrong. The second time he yelled, I KNEW something was wrong.

I went running into Ford's room to see him crying, standing up in his bed with his hand over his left eye, and blood on his face. Of course, when you see your child bleeding like that, it's scary. All I could think was, "Oh, Lord. Not again." He said he fell and hit his head on one of the spindles of his iron bed.

I grabbed Ford up and took him to the bathroom to assess his wound, calling for Scott on the way. After applying pressure, it stopped bleeding and we were able to see how bad it was. He had a cut over his left eyebrow that looked like it needed stitches. It wasn't as bad as his cut last week, but we still thought it was hospital worthy. I called Ford's pediatrian and we were advised to go to Vanderbilt Children's Hosptial to the ER. On a Saturday afternoon one week later, we were headed to the ER, AGAIN.

I had mentioned last week that it was probably a blessing that we had to go to the ER at Indian Rocks Beach. The hospital was small and there wasn't much going on that was traumatic in the ER, for which we were thankful. However, our experience at VCH was equally pleasant (for an ER visit). This visit took longer, but only because they put a numbing gel on Ford's wound that had to stay on for 45 minutes.

Once again, Ford was brave and composed. He only cried when the doctor put in the stitches. But, he stayed still the whole time. The staff couldn't believe that he had staples that were put in last week. The doctor checked out his injury from last week and decided he could save us a trip to Ford's pediatrian and removed the staples(one perk to our ER visit).

Since Louie works for an HCA hospital, last week, he asked what hospital ER we would have gone to had we been in Nashville. To answer Louie's question, whatever hospital our pediatrician recommends.

I actually had my camera, so here are some pictures.

Ford with his numbing gel bandage:

Louie, one advantage at the children's hospital is they have TVs in the room:

Watching the Disney Channel was a great distraction:

Once again, I hope this isn't too gory to post. Ford's three stitches:

After the stitches, waiting to be released:

We survived another Saturday afternoon at the hospital. We were even released early enough to still attend the cookout at Mary Ann and Jason's house (I think we were at the hospital for one hour and 45 minutes total). Ford played with Will just like nothing had ever happened. Kids seem to bounce back from this kind of thing more quickly than the parents! Scott and I were worn out and went to bed early that night.

Note*

*I started a post about our trip to Tampa on June 10th. I just published it. So, scroll down past the ER posts to see that post. There are lots of cute pictures!

ER Visit #2

I'm too tired to write an entire post right now. But, yes, it's true. We had to go to the ER again this afternoon. Ford fell and hit his head on his bed and it made a gash above his left eyebrow. Three stitches later, we're home. I'm starting to think we're jinxed! More later about this ER visit AND a post about our trip to Tampa.

I Will Try to Fix You

During our visit with the Caputos, we decided to go spend the night at the Indian Rocks Beach for one night. Abby and Louie have some friends that they rent a condo from often. It's just easier with all of our little kids to have a homebase to go to, if need be.

Once we got to the beach, we went to an early dinner. We got back to the condo in time for the kids to play on the beach for a little bit. Ford and Cati got in the water with their clothes on and played in the waves. Ford was lying down in the sand and having a ball.

When it was time to go in, we headed tot he condo and decided all of the sandy kids needed a bath. Scott was helping Ford get ready for his shower when I heard Scott scream for me to come there. Ford had gotten in the shower, slipped, fell backward and hit the back of his head on the shower threshold. When I got back there, Ford was screaming and Scott was holding his head and said he had a big gash in it. We put a towel over it to try and stop the bleeding and then I asked Scott if we needed to go to the hospital. He said he thought so. I looked and agreed. We threw one of Scott's tee shirts on Ford and headed out the door. We told Ford he had a boo boo that Mommy and Daddy couldn't fix and we needed to go to the hospital so the doctor could fix it.

If we learned one valuable lesson from all of this, it's to always find out where the nearest hospital is when you go out of town. Thankfully, Louie works for an HCA hospital and knew the name of the closest one. Scott was holding Ford in the back seat and looked up the hosptial on the GPS and I drove us there. Thankfully, Ford's head quit bleeding and he quit crying before we got the hospital.

We arrived at the emergency room in nine minutes. And, as far as an ER visit can go, it was as pleasant as it could have been. The hospital was small, so the ER wasn't crowded. The only staff people I saw were the three that helped us...the admin guy that checked us in, the nurse and the doctor.

The nurse was named Chris and he had to be a surfer. He was about as laid back as they come. I told him that I knew he did this all the time, but this was our three year old and our first trip to the ER, so please just keep that in mind. He was really nice and confirmed that Ford needed stitches. While we were waiting on the doctor, we called the Caputos to let them know Ford was going to be okay. Poor little Catalina was so upset about Ford. We let Ford talk to her so he could tell her he was okay. The doctor was just going to put some "band-aids" on his boo boo.

Nurse Chris got the doctor, the doctor came in, assessed Ford's injury and then told us what was going to happen. Ford had a 2.5 cm cut and it needed three or four staples. He explained that staples work better in the scalp than stitches. Since Ford wasn't crying anymore, my next question was if getting staples hurt. He said the shot to numb it hurts because it stings, but he shouldn't feel pain from the staples, just pressure.

Scott held Ford and I talked to him about popsicles when he got his shot and staples. Poor guy. I know it hurt and I think maybe it didn't get numbed all the way, because he winced and cried when he got his staples, too. He said the "clicks" hurt him (that's the sound the staple gun made). Ford was soooooooooooo brave. We couldn't believe how well he did and how little he cried. He got stickers from the nurse and some latex gloves to take home. We stopped at the store on the way home to get our brave boy a popsicle and a balloon. I think we were to the hosptial and back to the condo within an hour and a half. As far as ER visits go, I can't complain.

Here is the shower where Ford slipped and hit his head:

This picture was taken 24 hours later, but here is a picture of Ford's staples. It looks MUCH better than it did the night before, so I hope it's not too gory to post:

Here is a picture that Scott took with his phone in the ER. I was telling Ford about his "band-aids" (oh, and we did remember to bring Ford a change of clothes before we left the condo for the hospital):


Poor little Ford couldn't get his staples wet for 24 hours, so it made playing on the beach the next day challenging. He JUST wanted to get in the water and play. But, once again, he was a champ and did extremely well remembering not to get his boo boo wet.

The hardest part for me was knowing that something had happened to Ford and I couldn't fix it. It's a pretty scary and helpless feeling for a parent. We do praise God that it wasn't worse than it was and that Ford didn't have a concussion. And, also that Ford handled it so well and that the ER visit went smoothly. We also pray that we never have to see the inside of an ER again!

Trip to Tampa

This past week, we headed to Tampa to visit some of our favorite friends, The Caputos. Abby and Louie adopted and brought home their third child, Max, in November. We had yet to meet him, so we felt it was time to meet him and visit with the rest of the family. I think between Scott and me we took 300+ pictures. I'll spare you the bulk of them and just post some of my favorites.

Abby and Louie were wonderful hosts. We can't thank them enough for entertaining us and for letting us come and turn their schedule and house upside down. We only had one mishap for which I've created a whole separate post (See "Fix You" post). Other than that, we had a wonderful time with our dear, dear friends. Oh, and if you read Abby's blog, my apologies for using many of the same pictures.

Our little cutie pies. It's hard to believe in less than four years we've gone from zero to four-and-three quarters kids:

Cati and Ford hit it off. Here they are watching tv:

On Friday, Cati went to school and Abby, Scott, me and the boys went to The Aquarium:



That evening, we went to Abby and Louie's favorite pizza place. YUM!

Gussy and Cati:

Cute Baby Max:

On Saturday, we went to a condo at the beach. Here are pictures from Saturday afternoon. We played on the beach after dinner at Guppy's.

On the top bunk at the condo:

Family picture at Guppy's:

Cati and Ford had a blast running and playing in the ocean together:


My sweet friend and me (I love that Cati and Ford are in the background):

These next two pictures crack me up. Ford and Cati look like they are posing for prom:

Here they are being love birds again. So sweet:

I couldn't leave without getting a picture of the pups. I found Abby's dog, Murphy, and our dog, Griffin, at the same time when they were puppies:

This next picture makes me laugh, too. Doc looks like he's posing for a senior picture:

Abby and her sweet boys, Gus and Max:

I have some more pictures to post from our Sunday at the beach. There were so many cute ones, I thought I should create a separate post. We had such a wonderful time visiting our sweet friends. We miss them already and can't wait to see them again!