10 Little Monkeys Jumping On A Bed

You know how the story goes… “One fell off and bumped its head. Mama called the Doctor and the Doctor said. ‘No more monkeys jumping on the bed!'”.

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So three weeks ago, Elena took Emma to “The Little Gym” and Emma was mesmerized by another girl who was hanging from a parallel bar by her hands. So much so that she decided she would give it a try. From that day forward Emma has been working hard to build her upper body strength by hanging from our refrigerator door handles, our kitchen counter-top, or anything else that she could get her hands on and subsequently lift her feet off the ground. Elena and I realized quickly that we were on borrowed time and as of last week I started to fully close her bedroom door when I put her to bed at night. Our fear being that she would attempt a great crib escape with her new found ability.

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Needless to say, last night at around 10:00 PM, the thump we heard justified our concerns. Emma had managed to pull herself up and over the top of her crib and make a death-defying leap in total darkness onto the floor of her room. We raced to her side and examined her head and body for any obvious damage. By our estimation Emma had survived her brush with death unscathed. We gave her plenty of hugs and kisses and told her that she is not allowed to jump out of her crib. We returned her to bed and made sure that when she woke-up in the morning that we would not dally, as she is somewhat impatient and might try to throw herself over the top again should we not immediately appear before her.

When this morning came and Emma woke up, Elena rushed to the room to get her. Emma’s leg was already straddling the safety barrier. A few minutes later Elena came to wake me, a sense of urgency in her tone. Emma had apparently injured her leg from the previous nights fall. I jumped out of bed and placed Emma on the floor and asked her to walk for me. She took one step and collapsed to the ground as soon as she put weight on her left foot. She then uttered the word “booboo”. My heart sank and Elena and I prepared to take Emma to the hospital.

After a few hours of examination and X-Rays, it was determined that Emma had not broken anything. The Doctor was not sure where the injury occurred (foot, knee, leg, hip) but diagnosed her with a contusion. By this time Emma was walking better (i.e. she was not collapsing with each alternating step) which made an accurate diagnosis difficult. We took her home and she spent the rest of the day playing. Her walking had improved somewhat, although a limp was still evident. I imagine she learned how to bare her weight to accommodate her new injury. Toward the end of the day it was apparent that her foot had sustained the injury from the fall as slight swelling could be observed. Tomorrow we will try to wrap it during the day so that it can be somewhat immobilized. There is no chance that we will be able to get Emma to stay off of it so a wrap is the best we could do. Anyway, Elena is sleeping with Emma on an inflatable mattress tonight, and tomorrow we are going to see if we can pick-up a toddler bed. The crib, for now is off limits.

Roseola Anyone?

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Emma woke up screaming with a 103.4 fever at four thirty in the morning last Sunday. She had some sniffles, but other than that, no other symptoms. We controlled the fever with Motrin and wiped her down with a cold washcloth to bring her temperature down. Elena had been ill for a week at that point herself, and her condition was not improving. She was in desperate need of bed rest and the only way that was going to happen is if I stayed home from work for a couple of days to care for the little Monkey. So that’s what I did. On Tuesday I took Emma to the Doctor because she actually had a fever the previous week as well, which lasted until Wednesday. We thought she was better and then it started again on Sunday so we were concerned she had something more serious. This was the first time since Emma’s birth that I took her to the Doctor alone. It was really an honor and a privilege for me and Emma cooperated completely. Like she knew her Dad was going to take just as good care of her as Mommy. When the Pediatrician examined her she did not see any other symptoms until she looked into her mouth. Then she shrieked, as if she had found gold, and said Emma’s throat was covered with white spots and her glands were swollen. She took a throat culture and we discussed the Doctor’s findings. I told her I found it odd and perhaps even inconsistent that Emma has an apparently very bad throat infection as we have not observed a diminished appetite. In fact, I told her, in the waiting room and on the way to the office, Emma hadn’t stopped eating. The doctor then asked me if she had anything “white” to eat and I responded, “yes banana cookies”. The expression on the doctors face suggested that that was probably the cause of the white spots but I felt comfortable that she took the culture anyway since her glands were swollen. It’s better to be safe then sorry. In any event, Emma’s culture returned negative and on Wednesday she still had a fever. Elena called the Doctor and she advised us to get blood work. Since poor Emma had a nightmarish experience in the past with blood work we decided to hold off until Friday if things didn’t change. In the meantime we were hoping traces of the Z-Pak that Elena was taking would find its way into Emma, through her nightly nursing, and perhaps kill whatever it was that was causing her illness. On Friday Emma woke up with a rash on her neck and upper torso. I was on my way to work when Elena discovered this and was terrified of what she might have. Clearly she was reacting to something. Elena took Emma to the Doctor and right away they diagnosed her with Roseola. Roseloa is a very common viral infection that typically occurs once in children. Its symptoms are swollen glands, and an unexplained fever that lasts five to seven days followed by a rash all over the body for three to five days thereafter. It is typically non life-threatening although the accompanying fever has to be monitored closely and controlled to avoid the possibility of a seizure related death. I can’t tell you how relieved Elena and I were to learn that what Emma was going through was a common childhood illness. Not knowing what your child is afflicted with can strain your nerves. As a parent, like it or not, you are always thinking of the most horrific and terminal of possibilities (ebola, leprocy, etc.). As of this writing, our little Pink Panther is doing well and should be in the last throws of this bout with Roseola. We are going to continue to let her rest and keep her hydrated until she is back to 110%.