So it was just any other day with my two littles…
It was a Friday at “Mommy camp” and my oldest had been begging for park play date which I’ve been avoiding because we live in south Florida and we all know how hot it is in the summer! However, I find myself usually catering to his younger brothers needs more than his for good reason (he’s only 19 months).
So I planned a triple play date for him and his brother at their favorite park. Not even an hour in and his baby brother started screaming like I had never heard him. I couldn’t console him, nothing worked. All my mom friends kept helping me, trying to see why mid-slide he was screaming but we all couldn’t figure out why. No cuts, no blood, no bites??? So weird. We chalked it up to being tired and we left the park.
After his nap he wouldn’t walk and I knew something was terribly wrong. Matter of fact, I was scared out of my mind; my husband was out of town and here I was in a cluster. Thankfully after a failure to get good enough X-RAYS at urgent care my nephew picked up my oldest and the baby and I headed to the emergency room.
I can official say he was traumatized every single time we went for X-rays. It was frightening for him and I felt helpless while I laid on top of him to “hold him down.” Once we have them we are usually always vulnerable but in this moment my mom guilt set in and made me feel like all of this could have been avoided. Could have avoided the torture of my innocent little baby ended up in the hospital screaming “no Mommy and go!” while I pinned him down and cried singing “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.”
After four hours waiting for the X-rays, a fellow Mommy friend saw me in the hospital and texted me that she was also here with her baby. He is much younger, had a very high fever and just as scared of a mama. In that moment instead of feeling better about my situation I just wanted to comfort her. I knew because he’s not able to verbally tell her how he’s feeling except through crying that she’s still learning… and that is so scary as a first time mom. So I prayed for her and her babe and got a grip. The results came back that he was fine….. I felt relief and a whole lot better. Almost silly for going.
That night was hell he was up every two hours crying in pain. We watched “Boss Baby” on loop and sat on the couc . The next morning that mama had sent me an article posted that same day from Us Weekly. It was about a mom sliding down the slide with her baby….. at a first glance the photo looks like nothing is wrong . However after reading the first paragraph you clearly see the woman’s daughters foot is bent in an odd way; with a title saying “that’s when she broke her foot.”
I was happy to read that because apparently this is a common thing. I’ve been sliding down slides with all my nieces and nephews long before my own kids. Never had an issue….. however if you go “googling” you will find countless articles about “toddler fractures.”
Nearly 1 out of three happen from kids sliding down the slides with their parents! Never in my life I’ve seen or heard of this. So that got me thinking even though my sons X-rays were clear, he still wasn’t walking and could barely crawl without saying “ow.” So this morning we went to a pediatric orthopedist. Sure enough…. he has a toddler fracture and now is wearing a red full leg cast.
This isn’t the worst thing that could have happened to us. Especially not in a park…. you all fear the same injuries and tragedies as I do, I’m sure. However, I wanted to write this like the mother from the other article to warn our fellow parents, aunts, sitters etc. Possibly try to get signs telling us
that this isn’t a good idea instead of just saying one side is for toddlers and the other for big kids. Because let’s face it … if you have more than one the other wants to be where their older sibling is. Nobody’s perfect and I certainly have learned a huge lesson that I cannot control everything. I’m happy I trusted my gut and watched him closely and went for a third opinion.
Wish us luck these next three weeks while we try to keep him happy and dry!
