Thankfulness Days 6 - 10: What a Week!

This past week has been long, tiring, and has used up a lot of our patience. There was one night where I didn't get more than 4 hours of sleep, a morning where the kids and I were yelling at each other, and 5 long days of waiting.

All of this because of a glass rock.

If you have kids, you can probably see where this is going, especially if your kids liked to put things in their mouth...

It started Tuesday morning. Our alarm went off, and we heard the kids playing in Paigey's room. They were giggling, so we didn't think anything of it and started about our morning routine.

That's when the screaming started...

Pete ran into Paige's room, and I joined him a minute later. Paige and Nate were yelling at each other, and Ryan was hysterical. Pete couldn't make heads or tails of it, so I sent him off to get ready for work. I got them calmed down as best as I could, and then Paige and Nate start blaming each other. I can't make sense of it either, but then I notice some glass rocks scattered on Paige's floor. Paige said Ryan ate one, that Nate told him it was candy and made him eat it. Nate said Paige told Ryan to eat it too, and she's the one who pulled down the rocks (they were in a vase on a shelf that holds silk flowers). I called them both idiots, grabbed Ryan, and took him to our room where we cried. All I could picture was Ryan at the hospital in the middle of a surgery room with doctors trying to get this rock out. I was mad at the older kids, as they should have known better.

Day #6: I'm thankful that Paige and Nate go to school...if they hadn't gone to school, I probably would have taken my frustration out on them even more. And yes, I apologized for calling them idiots!

So the doctor assured me on Tuesday that he should pass the rock; it's small enough, smooth and round that there shouldn't be a problem. It'd come out in a day or two, and unless he stopped eating and pooping or started vomiting or acting funny, we'd be okay. That night Ryan woke up at midnight and cried for almost 2 hours. It wasn't bad enough that we felt like we had to rush him to the ER, but still enough I thought it might be necessary. When I started to get ready to pack up, he stopped his crying. We think the rock was going from the stomach to the intestines, and it was uncomfortable for him. He refused to leave my side, so we tossed and turned on the couch for the rest of the night.

Wednesday morning I was exhausted. As soon as the kids left for school, I remembered I had to make cookies for a church dinner that night. I had to get menus and grocery lists together, find all the checks for the bank deposit, go grocery shopping and be home by 11:30 for a lunch date I had with a friend of mine, which I was hosting, aka I had to pick up the house (couldn't have her 1 year old swallowing something, too!) and make lunch. I was also babysitting kids after school until after 5, then plan preschool, eat dinner at church, and have Pete's brother come over for game night.

I was ready to throw the towel in by 8 am, but made it through in one piece...barely! For Day #7, I was thankful I didn't have to make dinner, that I could just go to church and have it served to me and relax.

Thursday and Friday blended together. It was filled with feeding prunes to Ryan at every meal, and waiting. Lots and lots of waiting. Thankfully he pooped both afternoons with no trouble (which, as you probably know, is not a normal thing for him!). But no rock...and digging through poop is not something I enjoyed doing!

Day #8: I'm thankful Ryan loves prunes! He likes them almost as much as candy.
Day #9: I'm thankful Ryan's pooping and that soon I would not have to dig through it anymore....

And then today. The day we'd been waiting for: we were expecting to find that rock today!!!! Pete got up, made breakfast, and I stayed in bed to try and catch up on sleep (didn't happen; Paige and Nate were at each other's throats...and as we live in a ranch house, if there's yelling anywhere, you'll hear it...). After breakfast, Paige makes an announcement:

"Oh! Ryan pooped again this morning! And I cleaned it up so you guys wouldn't have to!!!!"

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Of all the poops she has to clean up, it had to be that one. Don't get me wrong, I love that she was thinking of us and being proactive. That's something she sometimes struggles with, and we did thank her and tell her we appreciated her efforts.

However, we may never know if he passed that rock or not. We're assuming he did, so we're all breathing a sigh of relief. Paige and Nate feel awful, and have been really concerned about their little brother. Ryan's been really conscious of what he did and what goes in his mouth now. We used glass rocks to weigh down a preschool project we were gluing on Thursday, and he was panicking! He was afraid someone else would eat them, so he was yelling "NO CANDY!!! NO EAT!!! Make belly hurt! No candy!!!!"

Day #10: I'm thankful that Ryan *hopefully* passed the rock!!!!


Have you or your child ever eaten anything they shouldn't have?