Foreign Object Lesson

So what happens when your 8 1/2 month old puts everything in her mouth?

One word: T-R-O-U-B-L-E.

Looks are SO deceiving! (thanks to Aunt Kristy for the super cute pic!)

And let's be honest. I knew this was going to happen sooner or later. I was really hoping for the later, but I got sooner instead. Such is life. And no, neither one of my other children have had something like this happen, so I guess it was high time. You can't really parent 3 kids and get away without something crazy like this happening. I think it's against the law of parenthood.

Last night during choir practice, the nursery beeper went off. Nothing unusual with Mal because she's not a big fan of the nursery. The first several weeks she was in the nursery I was paged every time I put her there just because she's cranky and a momma's girl. So last night when I had to bolt out, I figured she was just mad and she'd have to get over it.

Come to find out, little Miss found an earring on the floor and decided to see if it tasted as good as it looked. The dear sweet ladies who keep the nursery during choir were quite alarmed that she was chewing on something that they hadn't given her! So they dug around her mouth only to find the back of an earring. They were pretty sure she had the earring at the back of her throat but couldn't get it in time before Mal swallowed it.

So I thought, "Well, she doesn't look too worse for wear...I guess I'm on diaper patrol for a couple of days." But when I called the doc this a.m., he wanted an x-ray done just to make sure. And honestly, I was thankful for that. I had this horrible vision of her insides being cut or worse, the earring being stuck somewhere and causing more damage.

Fast forward to the x-ray, where she was a champ and loved the "bright light" shining on her cute belly, to several hours waiting (at home) for the doc's office to call. Of course, they didn't call, so I had to call them. This after spending the rest of my morning on my own exploratory mission for an earring. I'll let you figure out those details. (side note: no earring found, but I did find a small piece of paper...good dose of fiber?)

I called the doc's office and the nurse said, "Oh-the baby that swallowed something-just a minute." Great. Our reputation now proceeds us! The nurse gets back on the phone and says, "The radiologist said there is no foreign object present."

Say what?! Because I saw the earring back and those poor ladies were sure that she had swallowed the actual earring!

So maybe she didn't actually swallow the earring? Or maybe the Lord took care of it before Mal could?

Either way, Praise the Lord that she's happy, healthy and clear of foreign objects and I'm done with poop patrol!

But let's not forget a lady in my church is now missing an earring and at this point, I don't think she's going to want it back!