More Excitement

We had some excitement today. Aerin is fine, but we had to take a trip to the emergency room.

Early this morning, Andrew woke me up to help him take off Aerin's hemangioma bandage. I had used Aquaphor on it for the first time last night. It's supposed to keep the scabs from sticking to the bandage, but it ended up kind of melting them. When I took off the bandage, all the scabs came off and there was lots and lots of bleeding. Andrew called 911 and they were here in 4 minutes. We're so glad to live in Henrico County - not only do they have a tremendously fast response time, but 8 paramedics came to our house. By that time, the bleeding had stopped. I still wanted to go to the ER, because I was afraid the blood loss would make Aerin anemic and I wanted them to give us something to prevent a secondary infection. This ambulance ride was very different from the one we took last December. They put our car seat in the ambulance and Aerin rode to the hospital like a little princess. She just drank her milk and looked around. She didn't cry much when the scabs came off and she stopped crying when I picked her up to stop the bleeding.

When we got to the St. Mary's ER, we were taken right into an exam room. A nurse took Aerin's info and we were seen by the doctor in less than 15 minutes. The only time Aerin cried was when they held her down to draw blood. They needed more than you can get from a heel stick, so they had to get it from her hand. If there's one thing Aerin really hates, it's being held down. She also hates lying on her back. The stick didn't hurt her much at all. They let me pick her up as soon as they were done and she stopped crying immediately. If she was in any pain, she would have definitely let us know. Aerin fell asleep while we were waiting for the test results. She is anemic, but not enough to require a transfusion. We'll be seeing the pediatrician tomorrow and I think she'll be put back on iron for the next couple of weeks.

Being a mother really does transcend everything else. I am very squeamish about blood, but I didn't have any problems stopping Aerin's bleeding. Her hemangioma doesn't gross me out either, and it's really super icky. Andrew once again proved that he's the best husband and father ever and was calm and supportive the entire time. I think that Andrew and I were able to keep calm because of all we've been through with Aerin - this barely registers. It was so wonderful to go home from the hospital with Aerin the same day we brought her in.

Aerin is doing great. She's eating well and she went to bed just fine. She actually had a better evening - she has a tendency to get cranky close to supper time. She is just such a little trooper. Andrew was acting silly and made her laugh harder than I've ever seen. I was able to video tape it - you can see it on YouTube.