We found the perfect, family friendly house. It was in a great neighborhood in Manhattan Beach. We were feeling pretty pumped. In July we had been living in our house for little over a month and were on day two into potty training Nolan, when Steve and I were abruptly awakened to a super loud thud and blood curdling screams. I squint at the clock…it was 3am. Who? What? What the hell was going on? In less then a second Steve and I went from fast asleep to sprinting down the hall. We found that it was Nolan screaming and he was huddled in a ball on the floor of his room. He told us he was scared and tried turning on his light but flipped over the headboard. I climbed into bed with him and held him all night long. I should say all night LONG. The poor kid did not cry again, but just kept waking up saying "mommy, it still hurts. It still hurts. He must have fallen on his arm, although it was unclear at 3 am what part of his arm he hurt. I thought a dose of Motrin and a homemade splint that I made with his sister's tights would do the trick until morning and it seemed to. Come on morning, hurry up already and get here.
I had never had a broken arm and neither had Steve, but I remembered that my friend Bryn had a couple broken bones and knew that she would be up early with her little ones, so I called her at 7am asking what signs I should look for. I told her that he wasn't crying or whining he just didn't want anyone to touch it and he kept hugging it close to his body. She immediately told me to hurry
to the doctor's office. At 8:30am (the time the doctor's office opens) I had the kids and the Potette Plus (with extra baggies - all potty training mommies know what a Potette Plus is!) all loaded in the car. I would call this a no appointment needed situation and decided to just show up. One look at his arm and the doctor sent us over to the orthopedic surgeon. But before we could go, like any self respecting potty training mommy, I first made sure to bust out the Potette and tried to get Nolan to do his business while still in our private room...nothing. It was his first time peeing in public so maybe he needed to use an actual toilet like at home. I ushered him into the tiniest bathroom you have ever seen. It was clearly made for one. There was NO WAY all four of us would fit in there. So picture this…I put the twins in the stroller and left them in the hallway. But for some reason, I always think that I need to be touching whatever device they are in or on or it will just roll away. So I had one leg on the stroller, which also happened to work magically as a door stop. Nolan was sitting on the Potette that was now perfectly positioned on the real toilet, but of course Nolan wanted mommy to hug him, while trying to get "his pee pees out". Okay buddy, I will stretch and contort my body any possible or impossible way just for you to go pee pee. Come on Nolan, you can do it. No pressure. You can do it. Just a little bit. Don't mind your brother and sister..they are crying because they are cheering you on. (trying to rock stroller with non standing leg…yoga don't fail me now)…and after all that - the question is did he do it. And the answer….drumroll please… y-no…nice try mommy.
The orthopedic surgeon was just down the street. So I thought, we'll just check in and then back to whatever bathroom they had there. We sign in and I mention to the nurse or whomever she was that we were going to go to the bathroom because we were potty training *wink. Luckily this bathroom could accommodate all of us plus the stroller but of course a couple of somebodies hated the "feeling" of the bathroom and nothing happened. I'm sure the fact that he had an undiagnosed broken arm really helped Nolan feel extra akward about peeing in a public facility and the fact that his little brother was screaming bloody murder in an echoey bathroom didn't help the matter. Back to the waiting room for us. I was looking right at the nurse…burning laser eyes into her forehead saying, did they? did they call us? Look at me. Look at me and tell me to go back. She didn't look up. I'll have to work on my laser eyes. Ugh. Okay. I parked us by the fish tank hoping that would be enough entertainment for the wait. Not even close….all I can say is thank God for snacks, candy, handheld devices and everything else kids "shouldn't have." All those things were just about to fail me as well and suddenly we heard the sweet sound of "Nolan Henry, come on back!" Thank you Jesus. Once in the private room again, I pulled out the handy dandy Potette again. It had been at least 2 hours and I was sure that this kid had to go. I used the stroller as a shield to try and give Nolan a tiny bit of privacy and of course the doctor walked in while his pants were around his ankles…still nothing!
The x-rays confirmed that his arm was broken and the doctor said that someone would be right in to put the cast on and give him a splint. We wait. And wait. And wait. COME ON people. I tell someone else that I will be right back with all the kids and head back to the restroom with the bad ju ju because maybe he had to do go so bad this time that it would just happen…hahahahaha! It didn't happen. We head back to our glorious suite (ha, again) and by that time they were in fact looking for us and were ready to patch him up. Three hours since this poor little guy had last had a tinkle and he seemed to be handling it much better then his mom.He actually loved the whole process of getting the cast on and being able to choose red as his cast color! The color of Lighting McQueen! Finally, nearly 4 hours into this whole escapade I load them all up again and beg Nolan to please not pee pee in his car seat. We made it home, and he was dry as a bone! He made it nearly 4 hours without one single accident, on his first public outing, with a broken arm. It's the little things…but I was one proud momma!
Two weeks later the cast came off and our little guy was as good as new.
August brought the entire family together in Livermore for my brother's wedding to his beautiful bride Chelsea. All five of us were lucky enough to be included in their wonderful day.
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| No Broken Arms! Yay!! |
On September 16, three days before Neva and Jack turned two, Neva was trying to climb down my bed and fell. She is a really tough little girl, so when she would not stop crying after about an hour, I just knew that her arm was broken. It was Thursday at 5pm, so to Urgent Care I went with my broad. I'll keep this part of the story short, but they could not find the brake in her arm after two different places did x-rays so she went nearly 5 days with a broken arm before a doctor would finally give her a cast. Always trust that mother's intuition ladies...
Ironically our family friendly house brought 2 broken arms in the span of 2 months! So what did we learn from this? Well, that the Henry kids and beds just don't mix. But, in the words of Pete the Cat…"Do we give up? Goodness no!" Fall was upon us and with it new schools, new beginnings and new adventures! Bring them on!
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