First trip to the hospital

One of the joys of having a child is celebrating all of the first moments.  Their first smile.  Their first step.  Their first word.  Even their first poop!  But, one of the things we parents never look forward to is taking our child to the Emergency Room for any reason.  Unfortunately we had to take Gemma to the hospital just a month after she was born.  As Gemma and Cace were walking down the stairs into the basement Cace slipped on one of the steps and fell a few feet.  In the process Gemma slipped from his hands and fell onto the floor.  Thankfully she landed on a piece of carpet.  Unfortunately she got a bump on her head and was pretty startled by the fall.  After we got her calmed down Cace gave her a Priesthood blessing and we decided to take her into the Emergency Room just to make sure there weren't any major issues.  Once we got to the ER they ran a cat scan and found that she had a minor fracture on her skull where she fell so they transferred us to the Children's Hospital.  Because it was a transfer they wouldn't let us drive her to the hospital ourselves.  Instead Jody and Gemma had to ride together in an ambulance.  We ended up staying one night in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit and two more nights in the standard Pediatrics side ("the floor").  The pediatricians wanted to monitor her as her hemoglobin levels were a bit low.  Finally, after 3 days, the neuro-surgeon gave us the green light to take Gemma home.  In the end it was only a minor fracture that didn't require any surgery.  The swelling went down pretty quickly and she was back to normal after the first day in the hospital.  Nevertheless, it was worth it to make sure she was alright and to give us some peace of mind.

The worst part about the whole experience was the fact that she had to wear this mesh "boot" where they inserted the IV into her foot.  Although they never ended up using the IV it was still hard to watch them draw blood, as she screamed so loud whenever they did.

Cace got in some quality study time while we were at the hospital.

Gemma was excited when we got her ready to go home.

We just love this little angel.  This experience made us feel like we were the only parents in the world who had this happen to them.  But, after talking with the staff at the hospital and several friends we were assured that this happens quite often.  Thankfully it wasn't a serious incident but it was certainly humbling and Cace is being extra careful when walking down the stairs from now on.