Oh No

"Oh No" is Em's new favorite phrase. Similar to "uh oh", she says it very clearly and slowly. Over the last few days, she has really been saying it a lot. And she seems to be saying it at the right moments, like when she drops something or doesn't get what she wants. "No" is also becoming a more popular word in Emerson's vocabulary. She definitely knows what she wants AND what she does not want.

"Oh No" is a good description of this past week....

- First "oh no" moment was that I had to spend over half the week in New Jersey.

- Second "oh no" moment was traveling back from NJ and spending a total of 11+ hours traveling -- and no, I was not driving. Let's just say strong winds plus flying don't mix so well resulting is many delays. And because of these delays, I couldn't fly back to Kalamazoo and, instead, had to return through Grand Rapids very very late. I didn't actually make it home until the next day because I stayed at my mom's and she dropped me off at work the next morning.

- Third "oh no" moment was taking Emerson to the dentist. Unfortunately due to the flight issues, I saw Emerson for the first time in 3 days only a few minutes before we had to leave for the dentist. This first dentist we went to in July clearly was not familiar with working with little ones (even though she advertises as a pediatric dentist!), so we tried out someone else. This dentist only sees kids and as soon as we walked in, we could see how much everything was set up for kids. When we went into the back area, Emerson immediately took to playing with the toys until the dentist came out from his office and she immediately took to my leg. I have to say I was a bit surprised as well since he looked to be about 85 and had glasses with magnifying lens on the top of them and a light on his head. Well, even though Em fought hard, he knew just how to position her to get a good look at her teeth. Thankfully, she got a good report despite the staining on her teeth. The dentist says that is typical for babies who have extra iron in their diet and wasn't anything to worry about and something they could clean up. Yikes?! I thought there was no way Em would let someone polish her teeth. The dentist called for one of the hygienists and told her "get you gloves on, you haven't hard to work with a difficult one in a while." She jumped right in and went to work all while Em screamed. Fortunately, she worked quickly and I was amazed at how beautifully white Em's teeth looked again. The torture lasted no more than 10 minutes and when it was over both Todd and Emerson were covered in sweat. Todd from having to hold her so tight and Emerson from working so hard to try to escape. She calmed down quickly and was back to laughing when they gave her a rubber duck and a new toothbrush. She spent the next 2 days walking around "brushing" her teeth, so I don't think the visit to the dentist traumatized her too much!

- The fourth and last "oh no" moment occurred later the same day Em went to the dentist. We had a fairly normal evening having dinner and playing and it was nice to finally unwind from all the traveling. I was just about to take Emerson upstairs for bed. She was showing signs of being tired -- slowing down from playing and sucking her two fingers. I watched from across the room as Em started to lean back against Todd's leg just as he shifted in the chair and suddenly his leg wasn't there to support Emerson anymore. She just kept going and fell straight back and hit the tile in front of the fireplace. She seemed to be in shock for a moment and then started crying. Todd scooped her up right away and in less than a minute she vomited. Now I was scared and immediately thought Em had a concussion. I yelled to Todd to give her to me and to call the doctor. I took Em to the kitchen to clean her up. In my panic, I thought Todd was starting to clean up the vomit on the floor, so I yelled to him a few more times to just call the doctor. I heard him on the phone and continued to clean up Em. As I was finishing and she was beginning to calm down, I heard Todd say our address and a moment later hang up. When I came out with Em, I asked when the doctor was going to call back (the process is to call the paging system and the on-call pediatrician returns the call) and why he had to give them our address. He then informed me he called for an ambulance. A what?? Now, I was in shock. Yes, it was true, he had called 911. I don't quite know why, but when I was yelling to him to call the doctor, he took that as get someone to our house right now. I asked him to call back and tell them not to come, the last thing I wanted was to upset Emerson more by having strangers come into our house and examine her, not to mention that Em was not having a medical emergency. Yes, I was still worried about a concussion, but we were certainly able to take her to the hospital ourselves (if needed) and I just wanted the pediatrician to tell us what to keep an eye out for. Well, apparently, once an emergency call has been made, it cannot be undone as we learned. Great! I took Em upstairs to put clean pajamas on and she was so tired that she tried to climb into her crib. I had to tell her "no, it's not bedtime yet. We have to go back downstairs and wait for the ambulance." The EMT's showed up about 5 minutes later. Todd let them while apologizing for calling and letting them know that we are probably just over reacting parents. They were very nice about it and told us they have been called for less things. Surprising, Em didn't seem to care too much -- I think she was just too tired. They thought she looked okay and because she was behaving normally, didn't think there was anything to worry about. They told us what to watch for over night. Todd got up every couple of hours to wake up Emerson to make sure she was responsive. Thankfully, Emerson is just fine! So, I'll end this post with a picture of Em that shows just how much she is feeling good and you can see her pearly whites (she's in mid-jump while bouncing on her chair).