Aveline is Five Months... and a Scare

Aveline turned five months old yesterday. I know, I know. Everyone says how quickly these days and weeks and months go by with these wee ones. But time seems even more at warp speed with this second babe. I really do not see how it is possible. Five months have come and gone. Incredible.

And how incredible she is. Avie still has me up once, usually twice, a night these days. And whereas I could nurse her and put her right back down, asleep, in the past, now she is choosing to try to stay awake after these feedings, making it much more difficult for me to find my way back to bed in the middle of the night. The past few nights I have just given up, put her back down in the Pack-n-Play, laid down on the sofa beside her, and just let her wriggle and make noise until she eventually falls asleep. So I guess at least it is happening eventually. But I then usually end up finishing my night's sleep on that couch (unless I happen to wake up again) because I cannot stand going back to our room, turning on the monitor, and listening to the noises through that little machine. I am not sure I can explain the difference, but there seems to be one. That, and I don't want to wake Jarrett with the noise.  But other than these awakenings (which, according to the sleep books, are completely normal for her age, even though Elsa was sleeping twelve hours straight through the night most nights at this point), Avie is a complete joy. She is happy nearly all the time, smiling, giggling, with twinkling eyes. She is even tolerating car rides a little better here recently, now that she can really pick up her toys and play around with them. She also now enjoys looking over at Elsa in her car seat, smiling and chatting away at her.

And, speaking of Elsa, she is the receiver of some of Aveline's best smiles. It is clear already that Avie is in complete awe over her big sister, and loves watching everything she does. And, in return, Elsa is proving to be a fantastic big sister. She loves her, now giving her big squeezes and kisses, and lately she is claiming that Avie is "her best friend in the whole world." She still is quite concerned if Avie cries, but seems to be at least somewhat consoled if I am able to explain what might be bothering her (she's tired, she's hungry, etc.). Elsa still says she is looking forward to sharing a room with Avie, as am I -- I am just not sure when or how that is going to happen exactly. I am still worried that Elsa would be awoken with the nightly feedings at this point. But I know other families pull it off, so if anyone has any advice, let me know! It would be wonderful if I could put Avie in the crib at night rather than the Pack-n-Play. She does take most naps in the crib, though, at least. Either there or the swing, but I plan on getting rid of the swing soon, so there will not be an option soon enough.

Avie can roll over in both directions, but still does not do so on a regular, consistent basis. I just don't seem to have rollers. I know some babies use this as a way to move around the room. Mine just seem to conquer it and then do not really use the skill. Oh well. She likes the playmat and bats and grabs at all of the hanging toys now. And just in the past couple of weeks, we have tried out the exersaucer, which she seems to enjoy for periods of time. She basically hits buttons on accident, and seems happy with the sounds that come as a result. And she does grab and pull at the other toys as well. Last week, while Christian was over playing with Elsa, she seemed quite enthralled with seeing herself in the little mirror.

And her new trick is blowing raspberries. So fun!

Aveline has shown quite the interest in food, but more ours than her own boring baby food. But she has now tried avocado, peas, carrots, squash, and sweet potato, her favorite seeming to be the avocado (mixed with breast milk). She loves to watch us eat, though, and will move her little mouth as she gazes -- and grabs -- longingly at what we are eating. It will be interesting to see if she ends up being a good eater, as all signs are pointing that direction.

But all that grabbing got us into some trouble yesterday. Elsa and I sat down to bowls of creamy tomato soup yesterday afternoon, and because I had gotten a little sidetracked while the soup was warming on the stove, it had reached boiling and so was quite hot still in our bowls. I had a completely stupid mommy moment and had Avie sitting on my lap while I was eating, also trying to closely monitor Elsa and make sure she blew her spoonfuls well to cool them off (and she was doing a great job). I saw it coming, but it was one of those things that just happened too quickly to actually prevent. Avie grabbed first for my napkin, and that is when I knew trouble was brewing. But it only took a split second from then for her to then grab at my bowl, toppling over the piping hot soup right onto us. I knew her hand had gone in the soup and received the brunt of it, so I exclaimed some profanity (thankfully I don't think it stuck with Elsa), and rushed Avie over to the sink, running her hand and forearm under cold water. Then I realized the soup was on her clothes too, and I could feel what had spilled on my leg burning through my pants, so I started ripping off her clothes while running to the bathroom. I got her down to her long-sleeved onesie and her diaper and then just plopped her in the baby tub. Immersing her in the cool water just made her cries stronger and louder. I was trying to stay calm, but was freaking out at the same time, as I was not sure how badly she was actually burned.

After some time in the tub, I realized I did not know what was going on with Elsa, so I took Avie out and laid her on the floor, wrapped up in a towel. Poor Elsa was so scared. She had put on her shoes and went out on the back deck in the drizzling rain. And she did not want to come back in. Not wanting to leave Avie for long, I ran back to her, and tried to look her over. There was redness on her legs, but her hand and forearm were definitely the worst. There was already a blister on her hand, and then I realized the skin was peeling from her arm. This totally freaked me out. I then called Jarrett and tried to (somewhat sanely) explain to him what had happened. He first told me to head to the emergency room, but then quickly changed his mind and just told me to call 911. I was not sure if I was overreacting, but I just did not know the severity of the burn, and she is so little, so I went ahead and called. It seemed to take forever for someone to even answer the phone. Twice I got a recording telling me to stay on the line. Finally someone did answer, and I had to answer a bunch of questions before she finally told me what to do: run the burn under cool water for 10 minutes. Check. That is what I was doing. It seemed to again take forever for the ambulance to get there, but maybe it was about ten minutes. As they did not seem to act like I was overreacting, I began to wonder even more how bad the burns really were. Especially when they said they had to call Children's and ask them whether they could treat her or if we would need to take her to Grady to their burn center.

It turned out Children's could take her, so they got her ready and into her car seat, and took her away in the ambulance. At first, the two female EMTs said Elsa and I could ride in the ambulance with her, but then the male EMT, who showed up in the second wave, said it would probably be better for me to drive my car, but to just take it slow and obey all of the traffic laws. That the ambulance would be running their lights and sirens just to get her to the hospital to help get Avie something for the pain.

On the way to the hospital, I called Jarrett (who was also on his way to the hospital), and then Kate, and cried. I did not want to call my mom and worry her at that point, so decided to hold off until I knew more information. Jarrett ended up beating me to the ER, but by the time Elsa and I got there, still no one had told us that Avie had arrived. Being away from her was terrible, even though I knew she was in good hands. Finally, one of the EMTs came out to the waiting room and told us they had been back there. I guess they had just not been able to enter Avie into the computer system because they did not yet have her birth date, so the front desk was completely unaware. Once we were back with her, Avie was all smiles, which was such a relief. One of the EMTs actually made the comment that she must love car rides because she did so well in the ambulance. This, of course, made me chuckle. The child who hates her car seat (even though, like I said, it is getting better).

We were seen and treated pretty quickly, first by a resident, and then by the doctor. The doctor said he was expecting much worse from what was radioed in. Apparently even emergency workers overreact. We were told she had second-degree burns on her arm and hand, but the doctor does not even expect any scarring. A nurse came in and bandaged her up. There is a netting-like bandage as a base layer that will stay on for about a week, while we apply neosporin twice daily over the top, wrapping it with a gauzy wrap.

It is ironic that just a couple of days ago I was thinking how nice it was that Aveline had not had to visit the emergency room yet, since Elsa's first trip was at just over one month old. What a jinx this was. Even though I know accidents like this happen all of the time, I cannot explain to you how terrible I felt. It's like my brother (most jokingly) said: "Nice, Sis. First you break Elsa's leg, and then you burn the other one." Yep. Mother of the Year award should definitely go to me. But it could have been so much worse. I thank the Lord that it was not. And, trust me, you will not see me with hot liquid and a baby in my lap any time soon.

Happy five month birthday, my sweet one. So sorry you had to spend it this way!