Long Weekend and Longer Weekend

This past weekend was all about fun! We started off on Friday by going to the drive-in to see Easy A and the Social Network. I've been inspired. I want to be an internet billionaire.
On Saturday we went to the pumpkin patch. We didn't actually buy a pumpkin but we did have fun running through a corn trail, going through a haunted barn (the "boo barn") and seeing animals. I want to go back again because it was too busy to buy any of the delicious smelling goods that were for sale!
Here are some pictures:



On Sunday we celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving. Sadie and I went visiting in the morning to see my grandmother, my aunt and my cousin. In the afternoon I returned home for Turkey dinner! Sadie tried Turkey and Peas and LOVED them. She kept saying MMMMMM... MMMMM.... It was too cute! She is clearly ready to move on to more solid foods... now if only Momma was ready. Why am I so nervous?
On Monday we went to the Rockton World's Fair which is a Thanksgiving weekend tradition from when I was a kid. Normally we would put the turkey in the oven and then go but this year we were able to eat all of the junk food we wanted because we'd already had our big dinner!
For FUN and not exploitation (although I'm sure some will disagree) we entered Sadie in the baby contest. She won third prize, which was $15. That marks the end of her career since next fall she'll be too old for the baby show!
This weekend coming is going to be a busy one - a longer Weekend. Our bags are packed but we're not quite ready to hit the road Friday morning. I still have a huge list of things to do, including cleaning out the car and it's pouring rain!!
My mom offered to paint our living room, dining room and hall while we're gone but we couldn't get our stuff together (pick paint colours, buy supplies, etc). I would love to say if we'd planned this better we could have had our place painted but we didn't plan this at all!!! Luckily I was able to get our contractor in to do a couple of small jobs and some of our new furniture is being delivered (that fell into place on its own).
Can't wait to get outta town!! NYC city and Long Island... here we come!

Fugitive (Not at all)

It's been well over 72 hours since our ER visit and nothing has happened. Was the ER doctor trying to scare us?
At this point I'm guessing our report is at the bottom of a large stack of files from other families, like ours, who took their banged up tots to the ER. Clearly we're not a priority and that feels really, really good! We're also happy they haven't called because D picked Sadie up and wonked her head into a low hanging light fixture in our dinning room! The bruise on her forehead is fading but talk about icing on the cake! Sheesh.. why does my life need to be filled with so much drama? I've been thinking about this a lot lately and by blogging all of this it must seem like we are drama 24-7! We're not. We're mostly boring and I'm only slightly crazy. (;
All joking aside, this situation would be a lot easier to handle if we were talking suspected physical abuse. I'd trade Sadie's scratched hoo-ha for a head wonk anyday!!
ANYWAY... With all this going on I decided that it was time to flee the country! We're going on a very impulsive and last minute trip down to Long Island/Manhattan next weekend. We're going to hang out with Heather, Laurie and Ryan (Creating a Miracle) and then (as per D) we're going to skip down Broadway.
Yay!!



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Nothing yet..

No call today. I hope they call this week because I want this over with.
To clarify from my previous post, the blood and urine were cleared for clotting issue and UTI. There has been NO bleeding today.
I took a look this afternoon and the scratch looks more like an abrasion or a streak of blood vessles. It does not look like a slice or cut. Very strange. I hope that we're just dealing with Sadie grabbing herself and not an actual issue that has been overlooked in the process of protecting her.
I want to say that I wish we hadn't gone to the ER but there was a lot of blood and I couldn't see anything that could cause it. We're not talking about spotting or pink when wiping. I opened her diaper and there was a circle of dark red blood that looked exactly like AF. We *had* to get it checked out, and immediately. I even took the pay highway to get to the Hospital faster.
Again, this is to protect children but being in my shoes and being questioned about it is just the worst thing I've ever been through. I feel like I need to defend myself but that makes me feel like I have done something. It makes me feel guilty but the only thing I could be guilty of is not filing her sharp little nails after clipping them.
This is just a nightmare. ):


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Update on results

Blood and Urine OK so it was apparently JUST a scratch. Now we're waiting for our appointment with the Child Abuse Prevention Program.
I think I'm going to puke. I understand they need to do this but I feel like I'm getting in trouble for taking care of my daughter. The ER doctor wasn't very supportive. She said she talked to them and they'd seen cases like this before and I shouldn't have anything to worry about. Um, No! I should absolutely have NOTHING to worry about. Sadie is with me 99% of the day. There is no way this could be anything but her scratchig herself. ):


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@ The ER

Holy $&#% tonight has sucked - enough to throw caution to the wind and open up my blog again. I need this outlet. Especially right now.
Sadie and I are currently at the ER of our Children's Hospital. She's asleep since we've been here for hours now. It's been awful.
Our ordeal started with her last (normal) diaper change. There was blood and a lot of it. I tried to clean her up to see if there was a cut and almost immediately more blood started to pool.
I have seen little scratches on her before. She loves to pull - it's not just a boy thing. I figured she'd sliced herself with one of her sharp, newly trimmed, nails.
The first reaction from the ER doc was that there was no way she could have scratched herself and caused that much bleeding. She had to have an x-ray to see if there were "any foreign objects" in her vagina. I objected saying that was impossible but it had to be done. Same with the report that needs to be filed and the investigation to ensure she is not being abused. (I told you this night really sucked).
After the x-ray they collected a urine sample using a small baggie. It showed blood and evidence of infection which meant they had to insert a catheter to get a second sample to rule out contamination. They are also doing bloodwork to rule out any clotting disorders that would make her bleed so much.
It only took 9 months for a medical question to come up that I couldn't answer. I don't know if the donor has clotting issues in his family. It didn't say anything on his profile but I feel that means very little.
Wish us luck. I hope we'll be home soon. I hope it is just a scratch. I hope everything is ok. Sadie has been a trooper.

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And HOME etc

We're home. We've been home for a week now but my access to Blogger has been limited. My iPhone is off limits (exceeded data) and our good computer is having issues thanks to windows7thatmaynotbeauthentic. Dark ages.
Things are going well. My reaction while away was an overreaction. I came back to a clean house and just looking around I knew that I was crazy to think we had an issue. I'm hoping that all of my anxiety about our move and the house is over now that the larger aspects of our reno are complete. I had no idea how hard this (moving/renovating) was going to be!
IN OTHER NEWS:

CLOTHING: Sadie is growing like a weed. She's suddenly outgrown most of her clothing and with the change of the season we've found ourselves short on things for her to wear. Time to go shopping! We actually had a really hard time at the mall. Baby Gap, which was our favourite early on, has turned a bit too trendy for our liking. Do babies really need skinny jeans?? I know that a lot of people say that girls are more "fun" or "easier" to shop for than boys but what I'm personally finding is that boys have a good selection of comfortable and PRACTICAL clothing that simply isn't matched on the girls side of the store. The best we can find is from Carter's and OshKosh. Good price, good quality and baby appropriate. I also hit the jackpot at an amazing second hand store and bought several fall outfits (many Gymboree) for $60.

TEETHING: Tooth #7 and tooth #8 are here!

FEEDING: We're still slowly moving along in this department. I've bought a mini food processor and I'm going to try it out this weekend. We've tried many new foods since my last report. Barley cereal has been a big hit and so have apricots. We're tasting lots of new things but not really consuming much. Again, I don't think she's picky. She's just not that interested.

TOYS: Sadie LOVES Peak-a-Blocks. If you're on my FB you know I've gone a bit insane looking for them! Well she now has a large collection of maybe 75 or so and she is so cute playing with them. She intently looks inside them and I know she wants to touch the little things inside. The BEST part is that she doesn't just suck/chew on them. She actually plays!

I can do this

It's a new day that doesn't seem quite as scary. I now know that even one day of missed medication can throw me into despair.
Yes, the situation at hand is scary and not ideal but I'm reminding myself of the following:
1) The house was immaculate when we moved in. It was immaculate when we viewed it and immaculate when we inspected it. Therefore it's not as if we moved into a dirty home where something would be "littered".

2) The location of the acupuncture needle found inside was on the landing by the front door indicating it was on its way out (perhaps in garbage?). The layout of the house, as a raised bungalow, is that you enter the front door to a landing with stairs leading up or down. Honestly, it's been piled with boxes since we moved in and we hadn't cleaned there. It's the only place on the upper house we hadn't cleaned when we moved in. The other needle was found on our driveway. Again, indicating the needles were being taken OUT of the house.

3) When we moved in my Aunt vacuumed, mopped and swiffered our upstairs thoroughly.

4) I know the facts of the biological risk and there is none at this point. HIV lives in blood 24 ours, dried only several hours. Hep C and B live 2 weeks dried. We've been in the house 2 months and Sadie was not mobile enough to get into trouble within the first few weeks. Also, the owners of the house were an elderly Asian couple most likely using acupuncture for something like chronic pain.

5)Although the subject matter is scary being that it is a needle the risk could be there with many things leftover from a previous owner. Prescription medication, sewing needles, broken glass. I should do a big clean before letting our toddler loose regardless.

I can do this...