real parents
I think Jon and I are real parents now. We’ve both been neglectful in different ways the last week or so and finally we’ve had to go through our child’s poop and check for an object she swallowed. I think that is one test of true parenthood, stool checking.
Friday we attended a wedding reception for a friend I went to school with. They had vases filled with decorative glass rocks and flowers. Eden was being very difficult. They only thing she wanted to do was lay in the middle of the floor. We’d pick her up persuade her to eat and then down she would wriggle out of our arms to lay on her belly wherever she landed. Late in the night I got a glass stone from a vase for her to look at. She tried to eat it a couple of times and then I persuaded her to just hold it. We put it on the table and later Jon got her. I guess he also let her play with the stone only he didn’t realize she liked putting it into her mouth. Well at one point she started pointing to her mouth and Jon asked to look in it and to spit whatever it was out. Nothing. He then realized he had been letting her hold the stone. He asked where the stone went and Eden just pointed to her mouth. We asked several people there what we should do. One was a vet and another was an aspiring doctor. OK he was my friends younger brother and he is going to be a doctor, just after he gets his bachelors and then goes to medical school. Anyways. We came to the conclusion it would be alright. After all the stone had no rough edges, though it was about the size of a dime.
On the way home we listened intently to Eden’s breathing making sure she didn’t quietly stop breathing and us never notice. She started coughing and choking a little bit on the way home but after a drink of water she was fine. Our hearts worried. We hoped the stone was not lodged anywhere problematic. We got home and put her into bed. We both worried about her sleeping laying down. What if the stone got caught or changed position and choked her?
We looked up some websites and Jon called a nurses line. Her surety that Eden would be OK helped put us somewhat at ease. After all it was a round object with no jagged edges, she had swallowed it with ease, though it was on the big size for a little girl, but the nurse said it would probably just pass.
Jon was very nervous and slept in the girls room Friday night.
Eden’s been fine and today I was the lucky one to find the stone in one of her stool diapers. Yes I got it out and washed it so we could keep it. After all it was just a little poop, and I’ve gotten that on myself before and I’ve never thrown out body parts.
When Lilah showed the stone to Eden today and she called it ice, so she thought it was suppose to be eaten. 🙂
It has been a hard week for Eden. She’s a little more of a handful than Lilah was at this age, or we were more cautious. In the last week she’s had peanut butter and chocolate. She had a reaction to the chocolate, but luckily it was just small, mostly extra rosy cheeks, and she had no reaction to the peanut butter. She’s also been locked out front on our porch one night. We were just grateful she wandered back to the front door to cry and not onto the sidewalk or street. Now she swallowed a stone. Kids keep you on your toes and really our kids are pretty mild compared to others. I hate to think all the things that wild kids would do under our supervision.
April 2nd, 2007 at 1:57 pm
I can understand your worry, that’s a big stone for a little girl. I can’t believe that you have decided to save it! Brien will get a kick out of this post, I can’t wait for hime to check out the pictures.