A night for firsts...

Last night was a night of another "first" for Dylan. It was his first official visit to the Emergency Room. I plan on marking it in his baby book and also his scrapbook as his first official "scrape" as he enters his beginning toddler years. I know I can probably expect many more visits to the E.R. as he gets older if he is anything like his enterprising father.

At 6 p.m. or so, I was in his room cleaning and hanging pictures on the wall. I noticed him chewing on something and then swallowing it. In my naivety, I assumed it was a snack as he has a tendency to drag his snack cup everywhere he goes. It's often like a Hansel and Gretel trail throughout the house as he drops snacks in an almost perfect path back to his toys. I didn't think much of his chewing and swallowing something until I saw him pick up another. He placed it in his mouth, made a face, and pushed it out enough for me to notice it glittered like a new penny. Lo and behold, it WAS a penny! I ran as quickly as I could and rooted amongst his baby sharp teeth until I could manage to pull it out. I found another one grasped in his little palm and extracted those to put in a place that little hands could not reach.

I didn't think much of it until we went to visit Grandma at bowling. I casually mentioned that Dylan had swallowed a penny a few hours prior. She went and informed her bowling team of what had happened only to come back and tell me to call the doctor. I called the emergency room who informed me that he should be brought in and checked out.

Off to the emergency room we went with Grandpa in tow. While there, we managed to see a crackhead and also a dead body. Always fun times in the E.R.! I placed Dylan in the crib provided by the hospital where he proceeded to have an absolute ball. He bounced up and down and all around the crib in this fit of happiness that slowly led me to believe that the penny must not be doing much harm. We were led to the x-ray room where Dylan was held down for an x-ray and then sent back to await the results. My earlier suspicions were confirmed when the doctor came to tell us that they hadn't spotted the penny on the x-ray. It shows up as a bright white spot on the x-ray and they didn't see anything like that. They did think he may still have swallowed it and that it was further down and probably on the way out. I was told to follow up with his normal doctor in 3 days and to wait for the coin to pass. Now I sit and play the waiting game until that shiny penny makes it presence known. AHH, the joys of motherhood!!!

So now we have something new to document in Dylan's baby book and a story to tell him for years to come of the first time he swallowed change...