Sophia and the Blue Bead

I get my kids dressed everyday. 

I'm not one of those mothers that just lets her kids hang out in their pajamas for the entire day, even if we are staying inside.  It's just not the way that I roll.  We eat breakfast, we brush our teeth and we get dressed.  And when Samantha questions it, I simply reply, "this is what we do everyday."

On Monday, the girls surprised me by sleeping in for an extra hour.  This is completely unheard of in my household and I almost thought about checking on them just be sure that they were ok.  As a result, we were a little later eating breakfast and my girls were still in their pajamas when the cabinet delivery guy showed up at our house.  (We are finishing the basement and the cabinets were set to be delivered between 9 am - 2 pm).  Lucky for me, and the rest of this story, they were delivered early.

After the delivery guy left, Sophia found a blue bead on the floor and showed it to me.  It was one of the beads that their cousin gave to them to use to string into necklaces and bracelets.  Frankly, I was so tired of seeing the beads all over my floor, table and couch that I actually packed all of them away (or so I thought) the night before.  I told Sophia to put the bead up on the counter.

She never made it there.

Instead, out of curiosity, she stuck the bead up her nose.  And then panicked. 

Without seeing her actually do it, I knew immediately what she had done.  It's amazing how strong my mother's intuition is these days.

I tried getting her to blow her nose (with me plugging the empty nostril).  It didn't work. 

I tried massaging the nose to move the bead down.  It didn't work.

I tried using tweezers, but the hole in the bead was turned toward the nasal cavity and not accessible.  By now she was hysterical.  I couldn't hold her arms down and her head straight, all while navigating the tweezers.  Finally, I asked if she would let Mr. Jerry (our neighbor) hold her.  She agreed.

So, Jack, Sophia and myself trotted across the yard to the neighbor's house -- with Sophia in her pajamas and barefoot ... at 10:30 in the morning.  Sam stayed home and waited for me to return.

It became apparent that the tweezers were not going to work.  Luckily, the neighbors agreed to watch Sam for me while I headed to the hospital with Jack and Sophia.  Steve left work and met me there. 

Playing on the computer with Daddy while in the pediatric emergency waiting room (I threw a pair of clothes on Sophia before leaving our house; Sam, on the other hand, stayed at the neighbors' house in her nightgown.  Nice.):

Calmly watching TV, while waiting for the doctor to arrive:

Assessing the situation:

The first two attempts to get the bead out were unsuccessful.  It took Steve, me, a male nurse and a female nurse to hold Sophia down.  And it absolutely broke my heart. 

Then, we waited around for almost an hour and a half for some special tools to arrive (I'm still not sure WHERE they were coming from).  We pondered the idea of sedating her, but there are serious risks involved.

Finally, at about 1:30 pm, they were able to numb her nostril and use the tools to get a hold of the bead and remove it.  Unfortunately, I was not there when it happened.

Yes, as luck would have it, I had a scheduled OB/GYN appointment across the street at 2 pm.  I had to leave Sophia (and take Jack with me) to my appointment.  Needless to say, I was not feeling really great about my appearance at this point -- I was in sweatpants and a tee shirt.  The tee shirt was covered in sweaty tears and blood from Sophia on the front, and as an extra bonus, Jack had puked down the back of the shirt after I fed him in the waiting room.  Swell.

Jack fussed all during my appointment (simply from the lack of a nap all morning), and one of the nurses ended up taking him from me so that I could finish up my appointment. 

After my appointment, Steve and Sophia met back up with Jack and me and we headed out to the parking lot together.  Sophia was so happy to have that bead out (and to have a cheeseburger in her belly) and I am pretty sure that she will never like the color blue again ...

And when Sam saw her sister?  She asked her where the bead was because she wanted to put it back in her collection!  (We actually DO have the bead and I am considering putting it in her baby book to remember this momentous day by) ...