Teaching momma a lesson...

The previous post describes our very long morning at the doctors and CVS. For some reason, I thought the day would be calm after we got home and I put Peyton down for her nap. Hah, what a joke.

Peyton was up after her nap and doing her usual business of touching everything in the house and making a mess in every room. Since she is so busy I have to remind her to eat and this afternoon I was bribing her to eat a banana. I was in the kitchen looking at my schedule so I could go ahead and set up a day to get my MRI done (migraines) when Peyton came into the kitchen and pointed to her tongue. I thought she was complaining about me making her eat a banana and gave her some water. Then she asked for a napkin to wipe off her mouth. I thought this was a little unusual but Peyton does tend to be dramatic so I brushed that nagging feeling aside. She went back into my bedroom to watch a movie and I went back to my schedule. A few minutes later, that bad feeling came back so I went into the bedroom to check things out. Then I went into my bathroom and saw that she had brushed her teeth and got her toothpaste all over the sink. I cleaned that up and then decided to hide the toothpaste (which is toddler friendly and ok if they swallow it) in my closet so she wouldn't get into it again. Then that's when I discovered what had happened.

I walk in and there is an opened bottle of Unisom on the floor with 5 pills scattered around it. I immediately picked them up and counted them and noticed there were several missing. I also found an empty gel cap that she had squeezed the medicine out of and then spit the cap out. So I knew she had taken at least one pill. I ran over to her, assessed her and she was acting normal. Then I got on the phone with poison control (they are so nice) and they told me to immediately take her to the emergency room since Unisom is a sleeping pill and the dosage was pretty high. My mom came over and picked Campbell up and then Peyton and I rushed to the hospital. Thank goodness we only live miles away from the hospital because if the drive was any longer, I think I would have started to run cars off the road to get them out of my way. I wonder if I could buy some lights and sirens to put on my car, because surely this won't be the last time I find myself rushing to the ER with Peyton. It didn't help that it was 5 in the afternoon and traffic was horrible. During those few minutes, my mind was racing with all of these horrible thoughts and I broke down. Peyton was getting a little quiet so I made her sing some songs.

We got there and after filling out paperwork, we were taken right back. I was so glad we didn't have to wait, but the nurse side of me realized the doctors in the triage ranked our situation as pretty urgent. That scared me. They took us back into the room, laid her down on the stretcher, and hooked her up to a monitor to check heart rate and oxygen levels and they looked great. Several doctors and nurses assessed her and decided to give Peyton charcoal so it could absorb the medicine in the belly before it dissolved.

This was probably the worst moment of my life as a mother. I see some tragic things at work unfortunately since I work with sick and premature babies. But having to hold down my daughter while they forced 4 20cc syringes of charcoal down her throat was the hardest thing I have had to do. Poor Peyton didn't understand what was going on and didn't want to take the medicine, but with some persuasion they were able to successful administer a lot. I had to ask them to stop for a minute to give her a break and because it was just killing me seeing this. At that point, they decided that it was enough charcoal for now and now it was time to play the waiting game.

Peyton became pretty agitated and her face was BRIGHT red as if someone had taken a red marker and colored on her face. But other than that, she did great and responded well to the charcoal. Even the doctors were amazed at how active she was considering she took a sleeping medicine (that just shows you how busy she always is!!). We had to sit there for four hours so they could observe for any adverse reactions to the unisom and finally at 9 we got to go home! Peyton really did so well and I am so proud of her. Playing the waiting game really lets your mind think some awful dark thoughts about what could have happened and I broke down in tears several times. When Peyton saw my tears, she asked if I had a boo boo and needed a kiss. I love that kid so much.

I should have known that putting my medicines on the top shelf in my closet was not going to be safe from Peyton. She can climb anything and everything. I never imagined that she would be able to climb that high and open a childproof (hah) bottle. But I learned my lesson and will most likely have nightmares for a long time about this. It was a very scary experience and I am so thankful everything turned out ok. But sometimes I look at Peyton and tell her that she has to give me a break one day. She keeps us on our toes 24 hours a day!!

So today I will be working on Peyton-proofing the house.