One Armed Spanish Rose...

Well, the title is a nod to my brother Clay's most recent play Bye Bye Birdie as well as Cam and Josh's new fave nick-name for me! Thanks for your tact in the matter, men.

So the last week of February held all kinds of excitement for our little family. From me breaking my arm and spraining my wrist to Patriot reaching milestones left and right--- we were quite busy. Now that I have pretty well regained my fine motor skils (pecking out keys w/ one hand is SO frustrating!), you can all share in the story:

2.27.08 It all started on a sunny Wednesday morning moments before we left our house for Toddler Time at Central Library. Shannon and Larka (my sis-in-law & mom-in-law) were in town to hang out with Patriot and I on their day off, and we are on our way out the door when it happened. I was standing on the side porch stoop holding the baby carrier over my left arm, keys poised to lock the door in my right hand. Glancing quickly over my shoulder, I stepped back to get out of the way so Larka could get out before I locked the door and BAM! Apparently I misjudged the step down and fell straight back, clinging to the carrier/Patriot with my left and bracing our fall with my right. In my mind I was falling in SLO MO, but somehow the rest of the details are still fuzzy. They helped me set Pate down (I was still hugging the carrier to my body--much to Patriot's confusion) and checked to see if I'd hit my head too hard. Only my arm and my bum hurt but decided all I needeed was a little ice, to pop a couple tylonnel and we would continue to the Library as planned.

Long story short, I ended up calling the doc, just to check in, and they decided I should come in for x-rays. AAAAhhhh! I knew I would be paying the $40 co-pay for nothing, but it was better than not knowing.

After two rounds of x-rays and my arm nearly doubling in size, they decide that I have 'evidence of break' but cannot exactly see where in my elbow I'm broken! Without much explanation, I'm put in a hard, mold to your body split, ace bandaged, put in a sling and sent on my way. I tried to protest, "I'm still nursing 4 times a day, my son isn't even 9 months old yet, who will pick him up?" Dr. Stern (that's really his name:) said he would redo the x-rays in about 2 weeks, and to not shower (WHAT?) or take it off before then to give it a chance to heal. Thankfully we were headed to my parent's house in Plano that weekend and mom had a few bath skills up her sleeve!

During the next two weeks Patriot learned to crawl at a pretty quick pace, pull himself up to standing inside his crib (we figured that out at 4am the Saturday after the big break!), causing Josh to have to lower his mattress, all the while bringing in his 4 top front teeth---WHEW!

Additionally we traveled back and forth (and mom made a couple trips our way) so that I would have someone w/ me 24/7 on baby duty! Not changing a diaper for 3 weeks, blissfull. Not being able to successfully hold, rock and cuddle your precious babe to sleep at night for 3 weeks, heartbreaking.

As of last week's x-ray, we are in the clear on the break (thank-you Jesus!), but I had to wear an ace bandage on my wrist when he discovered the sprain. Seriously? At the end of that week I hosted Easter for our Fam's at our house---we were just asking for trouble, right? More about that later though.

Thanks for all of the prayers you lifted on our behalf during this interesting chapter in our lives:0)