Broken Baby

 Sunday morning we laid Kaylin down for a nap before church. Mark and I were in our bathroom getting ready to go when we heard her screaming. Mark rushed in to find Kaylin on the floor screaming. We had not moved her mattress to the lower setting of the crib. I had no idea that she could pull herself up and over. She was inconsolable for an hour. I called the oncall nurse who told us to watch for signs of concussion or broken limbs. I stayed home with her while Mark took the three big kids to Primary. Kaylin was fine as long as we held her. She would wince in pain and grab a hold of us when we adjusted her wrong. We still weren't sure what was wrong at that point. I always thought that a child would be in constant pain and agony with a broken bone. Kaylin would cheer up and even smile at times. We decided to attend my family's Christmas party. Kaylin finally fell asleep in Mark's arms. We held her the entire time and she seemed okay. When we returned home Mark set her down to see if she could crawl. She screamed and frantically moved her left leg. It was apparent that she couldn't move her right leg. We got the big kids to sleep and called our neighbor to come sit with them while we headed out to the ER. Everyone was very kind to us at the hospital. Kaylin gave everyone smiles and they would stop talking to us so they could talk to her. She is a flirt! The worst part of this experience was when the doctor did his exam. We were not totally sure where she was hurting. She was in totally agony when he found the injury. She sobbed with big tears. Here is Mark after consoling her. The second worse part was taking xrays. Mark had to hold her down so they could get clear shots. We were in shock when the doctor showed us the 2 fractures in her femur. We had let the poor girl hang out for 12 hours with a broken femur. We don't know how she made it through that day. We feel awful for knowing it was our fault the injury occurred. This has been a bit traumatic for all of us.

 At this point we were able to give her pain medication and they put a splint on her leg. She cheered up and seemed to really enjoy having her leg stabilized.

 We returned home around midnight with a naked, sore, exhausted baby girl. The hospital gave us this polk-a-dot blanket and we have used it almost exclusively this week.

 They encouraged us to sleep with her the first night. Mark and I didn't sleep much but she was able to rest in our arms. This is the saddest picture.

 Mark stayed home on Monday morning to help me get her to the doctor. They unwrapped her leg and determined it was too swollen to put a cast on. They put the original splint back on from the hospital. Kaylin was in a lot of pain this day. She wanted to be down crawling but would wince in pain. I held her for much of the day. We gave her infant Lortab Monday to help her sleep.

She felt much better Tuesday morning after having slept almost 12 hours. Here she is playing ponies with Claire who had stayed home with a cold.

 Mark came home Tuesday afternoon to help me take her back to the doctor's office. We met with the orthopedic surgeon and had more xrays taken. This experience is so traumatic for Kaylin and Mark. He hates holding his princess down and causing her pain and anxiety. The doctor pointed out that the originally splint was too short and stopped right above the fracture causing her pain. How frustrating to know that the very thing meant to help her was causing her trauma. The doctor wanted to try a longer splint instead of a cast. The new splint goes all the way up to her bottom giving her maximum stability and more comfort than a traditional cast. Sean is disappointed that she doesn't get a cast he can draw on. I'm sure he envisioned following her around with a sharpie!

 Here are the xrays from yesterday. In the one above you can see the brake on the left side of the femur towards the bottom of the bone. On the picture below you can see the horizontal fracture at roughly the same place. I LOVE the baby chub of her bum and thigh on the picture above as well as her onsie snap.

 Here is Kaylin with her new splint. She has only ever been able to army crawl which is the perfect technique for a broken leg. She crawls around dragging her bad leg behind her. She is happiest when her leg can't move and I think this splint supports her injury well. She has been super happy today. We only give her tylenol for pain and she was able to take a nap on her own in her crib today.

 It's still hard to believe that our baby girl has this serious of an injury. She has experienced levels of pain that no little baby should have to endure. She is at the mercy of parents who make mistakes. We are grateful that she didn't have a head or neck injury but a double fractured femur isn't the best thing either. I think the worst is over and hopefully everything heals well.