A trip to the ER

So, I do not win "mother of the year" for this one. Here's the story: Olivia recently learned how to climb out of her pack 'n play, which she has been sleeping in this month while my cousin Laura is staying with us for a med school rotation. This happened last Thursday, March 25th. I put her down for a nap about 12:30 and the monitor suggested she had been totally quiet for an entire hour, which is a little unusual because lately she's had trouble going to sleep. I went up to check on her and realized I hadn't turned on the base of the monitor, hence the silence on the other end.

When I opened the door to our room, Olivia was sitting on the floor proudly going through our medicine drawer (a plastic box w/a drawer that she can open.) Now, like a good mom, I know most of the bottles and pills are child proof. However, there was a plastic ziplock bag of zrytec pills (allergy medicine) that a friend had given me to try last year when I was allergic to Virginia.

Olivia is very proficient at opening ziplock bags. There were about 12-14 pills to start with and I only saw 4 left in the bag so I immediately asked her if she ate them and she said, "Yea, Livie's tummy all better now." I tried not to freak out and thankfully Laura was home by now and I got her and Tifiny to help. Tifiny took Olivia while I searched for more pills and Laura called poisen control. I hadn't lost control yet, but by the time we loaded up to go to the ER, I was definitely crying with Olivia asking, "Mommy, you sad?" I replied with, "Yes, Mommy is so stupid!!" and she looked at me and repeated, "Stupid?" (in a precious way that made me cry even harder.) I called Bill at school and left a message, which someone else who was more contained should have done. He met us at the ER when he got the message.

Well, we went to the hospital and they got us in right away and because I didn't know how many or even when she took them, they just gave her liquid charcoal, which she called special water. It's supposed to bind to the drug instead of absorb into her system. She drank about 10 oz. like a champ. Then they kept us there so they could monitor her. She was tired, but then again had missed her nap. I guess it could have been worse. So far, she doesn't seem affected by taking the pills.

This picture captures her at the end of her stay (about 4-5 hours.) Very tired.