Never a Dull Moment

Today started out like any other day. We were just hanging out at home, watching a movie before lunch. Audrey went down for her nap, and I fixed lunch for Eliza. She had a bagel with strawberry cream cheese, fruit snacks and baby carrots - her favorite. I was going about my business, thinking about getting my own lunch, when Eliza just started crying. Not that fake whining that she often does, but really crying like there was something wrong. So I drop everything and go to see what happened. She tells me that she stuck a carrot up her nose. There was no carrot sticking out so I thought she must have jabbed it in and pulled it back out. Then came the blood. My stomach immediately turned into knots. I grabbed a tissue to control the blood, and tried to get a look inside. Sure enough, there was a carrot way in there!

First I called Dominic to see what he thought I should do, which was no help at all (sorry hun). So I called her doctor next. The nurse told me the doctor was away but would be back in about 45 minutes. The bleeding had stopped at this point, and Eliza had only cried for a short while when it happened. So I called a few friends trying to find someone to watch Audrey for a bit. Luckily, Julia was able to take her. I dropped her off and headed to the doctor's office with Eliza.

The nurse called us back and Eliza was so brave. She laughed with the nurse about trying to be like Frosty the Snowman. After a few minutes, Dr. Hampton came in to check her out. He put some gel in her nose first while she was laying down. She did great staying still and not wiping it away. The nurse helped hold her head still and I had to hold her hands. Thankfully, I thought to bring her special blanket with us so she held onto it tightly. The doctor used some special tweezers with little spikes of some kind to grab the carrot, and he got it out on the second try. Eliza only cried for a minute.

Unfortunately, I was not prepared for the crunching sound it made when he grabbed it, and I definitely shouldn't have looked when he got it out. I thought I was going to throw up! I've never been the kind of person who faints at the sight of blood, but I guess I've never had to see my own child bleed. There was no more blood when he got the carrot out, but the memory of the blood at home, along with the sound and sight of the carrot being extracted.... (shudder).

I am very thankful to Julia for dropping what she was doing to take Audrey off my hands, and thankful that I didn't actually faint... The doctor did make me lay down for a few minutes and got me a pepsi. How embarrassing!