Today was not a good day for my little half pint. This morning at around 8:00am she figured out how to climb out of her crib. This wasn’t graceful, it was a hard fall onto her head hitting the concrete as she landed. I heard the loud thump and my heart just jumped into my throat. I knew at that moment that she figured out how to climb out. I was on the other side of the house and I heard the “thump” like it was in my room. I heard a cry I have never heard before and I hope never to hear again. It was just horrible. It felt like I was running in slow motion trying to get to her room and when I opened the door to her room, there she was laying flat on her back screaming. She wasn’t moving at all except for her wailing in pain and fright at what had just transpired. I was afraid to even move her. I had no idea how she fell and I feared that she may have fallen straight on her neck. So I waited for just a second to see if she would actually try to move her arms or legs. She didn’t try to get up, but instead just laid there screaming and wondering why I wasn’t picking her up in that moment. When I saw her wiggle her fingers and move her feet, I decided to pick her up.
The poor little thing was so frightened. I took her into the living room and we sat there together until she calmed down. Once she was calm, I began to wiggle and move her arms, legs, her fingers and toes and finally her neck. There was no pain or discomfort from her when I did it, so I knew this child must have gone down straight on her head. She didn’t hit her face and there were no red marks visible. After about a half hour she was up and about moving around and I just continued to watch her. She was walking a little wobbly and kept trying to lay down so I decided to take her to the E.R. just in case there was anything more significant going on.
We sat in the waiting room for a LONG TIME, she was seen by the Triage nurse, but by this time she seemed just fine. They sent us back out to wait, and finally, being fed up with everyone going in and being seen instead of her, I asked if they were going to do anything with her. They said no. No x-rays or other tests. At that point we just left. Head injuries can be deceptive, so I’ll be watching her over the next few days and if I see anything at all out of the ordinary, I will be bringing her back (to a different E.R.) for someone to look at her.
I kept her up all day and she finally went to sleep at around 4:30pm. We’ll keep our fingers crossed that the worst is over and that nothing else develops from this event.
Tags: climbing out of crib, falling out of crib, toddler to the emergancy room
April 7th, 2009 at 7:29 pm
Hi sweety, next time take her to the Women’s Hospital if you have to. It’s in Albuquerque on Montgomery. They have almost zero wait time most days. I am not sure what hospitals are close to you, and hopefully you can get some better recommendations.