First trip to the ER for Bristol

Well I know people say that boys are more accident prone than girls and that it is normal for boys to have bumps and bruises and what not.  Well for me that has always just been another reason I didn't want to have any boys.
So Bristol made it almost 18 months without having an accident serious enough to warrant a trip to the doctors.  Until yesterday that is.
Yesterday started like a typical day.  Josh wanted to use his new weed eater int eh backyard to continue trying to get our yard in nice shape for the kids to play.  So while he worked on the weeds the kids played in the sand box and I was in my office working on scrapbook swaps.  Then I decided to go sit out there with the kids.

As I was sitting in the doorway in the backyard watching the kids Bristol came over and gave me one of his slobbery kisses and went back to playing.  What I didn't notice was instead of walking back to the sandbox he went and sat in an ant pile.
After about 10 minutes he stands up crying.  That's when I noticed where he was standing.  I screamed for Josh to come help me while I picked him up and started brushing off ants and pulling off clothes, all the while still screaming for Josh to come help.  He was on his way, but I don't think I quit screaming until he was right next to me. 

My baby boy was covered head to toe with red ants, all biting him and holding on for dear life.  I has trying to pull them all off and brush and the ones still crawling before tehy had a chance to bite.  After we got all his clothes off and stripped his diaper we noticed that he was also poopy.  So I was running through the house looking for wet wipes while Josh carried Bristol around at arms length trying to not get poop on anything.  The poor boy was screaming at this point.  I can only imagine what he was thinking.  He was in horrible pain and his daddy wouldnt cuddle him.  Of course the wet wipes were no where to be found so we just put him in the tub and rinsed him off. 
As soon as he was rinsed I scooped him up to cuddle him while josh got a diaper.  He immediately wanted to nurse away the pain and I let him while I called my mom's store.  Of course I never call in the middle of the day so when my sister answered she asked what was the matter.  I told her Bristol was attacked by ants and I needed to talk to mom.  So now they were all in panic mode as they have no idea how bad it is.  I asked my mom what I should give him to soothe the bites and take away the pain.
Of course I had nothing in my house for the pain.  I gave him some tylenol and had josh start making a baking soda paste.  Then I told my mom I would call her later and let her know what happens.  Over the next few minutes Bristol just kept screaming and crying in pain.  Trying to nurse one minute and the next squirming on the floor crying.  The whole time Josh is asking me if we need to take him to the ER.  i really didn't think it was that serious since ant bites are only dangerous if you are allergic.  Of course I don't know if he is allergic and at this point I counted 1 bite on his thigh and around 15 on his neck and upper chest and back. 
Then Dega starts getting scared because her brother was all red and wouldn't stop crying and couldn't even nurse to calm down.  And Josh was still asking if we should take him to the ER.

I am not one to take my kids to the doctor over every bump adn bruise and bite.  Mostly because it's just a waste of money, but at this point we weren't going to be able to soothe bubba and I thought maybe they would know what medicines would help adn soothe him at this point.  First we made a quick call to Camille to get a natural remedy for bites and hopefully avoid the ER.  No answer.  Most likely they were in church, so I told Josh just to go, take him to the ER and I would keep Dega calm at the house.

I felt like I was sending my boy off to war.  Part of me wanted to go, but knew it would just be chaos with Bristol not able to stop crying and getting Dega all worked up.  So I stayed home and turned to the internet to try and soothe my mind.  No such luck.  I called my mom and let her know what we decided to do and then called my sister and let her husband know.  I basically just needed to talk to someone so I wouldn't sit and freak out. 

Josh thought they were fire ants and I don't know the difference between regular red ants and fire ants.  After using my Swagbucks toolbar to search ant bites I just got more nervous.  Josh called and told me to call his parents for him.  I could barely hear him over our screaming baby.  Everytime he called i got to feeling worse.  My baby was uncosoleable and I wasn't even there for moral support for my boys.
I eventually found Josh's parent's number and put aside my phone anxiety and called them.  I was shaking the whole time, not sure if I had the right number, not sure what to say, not sure who would answer.  But I made it through the phone call and then just sat back and waited.

I still had no idea how Bristol was doing.  If he needed medicine or if he was allergic.  What if the recalled tylenol I gave him made him worse?  What if I gave him the wrong dose.  What ifs consumed my mind.  All the while Dega sat contently watching cartoons.

After about two hours Josh finally pulled up to the house.  I was out the door and to the car before he had a chance to turn off the engine.  I looked into the back seat and Bristol's carseat was EMPTY!!!!  Panic set in AGAIN.  Josh gets out of teh car and I ask where is Bristol.  He said he was in Dega's seat because it was easier to put him in.  Instead of lecturing him about teh saftey of the straps I just opened the door and scooped up my sleeping boy.  He looked soo bad with his rash around his neck and his exhausted look on his face.  I just went and sat down with him and stared at him.  I didnt want to let him go.  I felt so guilty that he sat in the ant hill for that long and that I didn't move him.  If I hadn't went out there he would have stayed in the sand box with Dega and never would ahve went near the ants.

As all the guilt started to over come me, Bristol woke up just enough to want to nurse and start pulling at my shirt.  I gave in and he nursed for an hour before drifting back to sleep.  I finally felt it was okay to let him sleep in his bed rather than my arms and set him down.  At this point Dega realized Bubba was home and just wanted to wake him up and make sure he was happy. LOL I told her to let him sleep.

After a 3 hour nap he woke up and acted like he did every other day.  He went and joined sister in the wading pool and they played in the pool on and off for the next four hours.  Over that time his rash started fading out and he wasn't even grabbing at his neck anymore.

This morning he woke up with no trace of the bites.  If you didn't know better you would have no idea he was attacked by ants and spent the afternoon in the ER yesterday.  Dega says it's becuase the popsicles healed him to feel better.  MMKAY!! Whatever you say silly girl.

It's been a while!!

So it has been about a year since I have blogged.  I haven't even used my myspace blog or even journaled.  For a while I was keeping a journal in a group on cafemom.com and then the next thing I know that group has all but died and the new owner of the group went and deleted the journal forum.  Thanks a lot!  I had some nice posts I wanted to keep, but can't now.  Oh well.

So I have decided I do need a place to keep a journal and blog.  So this as good a place as any.  I will try to keep this on a positive note, but as my previous blog readers know I like to keep it honest.  sometimes the truth isnt pretty.  So be warned. 

If you are looking for a sugar coated version of what's going on in our life, then just call me b/c my blog will not be sugar coated.

So enjoy!