We broke the baby

The old adage that you will not break the baby holds true… unless the baby rolls off of your chest, bounces off a mattress, hits a bed frame made of re-bar and then lands on the floor.  In that situation… you might break the baby.  A bit of an exaggeration, but Sam does have 3 skull fractures.  He is fine in all other regards, but he got a good bonk on the noggin.

What happened is this: Peter was with Sam in the guest room.  They were hanging out, relaxing while mommy got some sleep.  At about 1 am on Sunday, Peter was adjusting his position and Sam chose that moment to make a sudden move.  The perfect storm happened and Sam fell to the floor.  The screams woke me up- which is good, because it meant that Sam had not lost consciousness.  After a minute, Peter brought Sam to me, and I was able to calm him down with the magic of the boob.  We called the doctor on call, and she was not overly concerned.  She told us to keep an eye on Sam and if anything changed, to take him to the hospital.

I stayed up all night watching him, and while he was not himself, he was not too drastically different. He was cranky, threw up a little after each meal and slept… a lot.  By 10 am on Sunday, I called the doctor again, as I was just not convinced he was OK.  Again, nothing I was describing was acute enough to warrant taking him to the hospital.  Still, I didn’t like the way his head looked.  I asked for his Special Start nurse to come over and give him the once over.  She was concerned and agreed that his head didn’t look right, but he was acting normal.  We agreed to just wake him every two hours and see my pediatrician as planned at 11 am today (Monday).

By the time we got him to the doctor’s office, he was much better.  I felt like all the odd behavior was gone.  In fact, Sam smiled at me… on purpose… twice!  It was the first time I really saw him smile- and mean it!  He was even flirting with the doctor.  Dr. Sarah said he looked great and was happy with how he had been improving, but also agreed that his head didn’t look right.  She started feeling around and felt fluid.  This was concerning enough that she sent me to the ER at Children’s Hospital for a CT Scan.

8 hours later, we now know that there are 3 skull fractures, no brain bleeds and no other injuries.  We have been interviewed by a social worker (to make sure we are fit parents) and were sent home to keep a close eye on Sam… and to not let him fall again.

As I said… we broke the baby!