We interrupt our regular programming...

...to bring you "breaking" news. Ezra broke his arm last week, and in true Ezra style it was a HUGE deal. I have said it before, but some kids have all the luck and Ezra is not one of them. I will finish off our Utah trip later, but lets back up for the full story.

While we were in Utah Ezra slept on a little kid air mattress, and in order to keep him in bed to go to sleep, I started the very bad habit of laying next to him on the floor. Needless to say after 5 weeks he has decided to be completely dependent on me for falling asleep. When we got back to Boston he started to wake up a lot in the night, and with sleeping somewhere different every other night (I can't wait to be done with Holyoke.) he often ended up in bed with me. I am normally VERY anti Ezra in my bed, but exhaustion drove me to such madness. After two literally sleepless nights in Holyoke I was determined to get Ezra back to sleeping on his own.

We got back from Holyoke at 11:30, played a little, had lunch and then were ready for the crying to begin. As soon as I mentioned the word nap Ezra started in with "Mommy's bed", but much to his dismay I insisted he sleep in "Ezra's bed". He was of course crying, but I was ready for five minutes of it before I went back in. Unfortunately, I think we made it about 2 minutes before I heard the thud. I went in to find Ezra on the floor. I was a bit surprised because I have never once seen even a hint of him trying to climb out. I decided that there would be no napping in the crib today until I could figure out a way to keep him from climbing out, so I gave in and took him to my bed. When I laid him down I went to hold his hand (something he likes me to do while he goes to sleep so he knows if I try to leave) and felt that his wrist was clearly deformed. I looked down and knew that we would be making a trip to the ER.

When we got to the ER they got us in to the triage nurse fairly quickly because Ezra's arm was visibly broken. They took his vitals and stuck me in a wheel chair with him on my lap and his arm on a pillow. While we waited to be seen by the doctor Ezra drifted off to sleep. When they wheeled us back the doctor checked Ezra's eyes and felt his arm, and he slept through all of it. She decided that was not a normal response, that he should have woke up crying. Because I had not seen him fall they felt they had to assume a head injury. They took him from me (which woke him and sent him into a screaming frenzy) laid him on a bed, and stuck a neck brace on him. He, of course, hated it and he spent the next 30 minutes or so fighting me and three other people trying to hold him down. They decided he needed to be transferred to Children's Hospital and called an ambulance. They kept calling him Houdini because despite four of us holding him down he managed to get the brace off of his arm three times. When the paramedics finally arrived it was even more mayhem trying to keep him still and get him strapped to a board to transport. Once we got him into the ambulance, and he could hold my hand he calmed down.

While we drove, with lights and sirens blaring, Ezra fell asleep again. I am sure he was exhausted. When we were getting close the paramedic checked his eyes and decided to wake him. He was lightly pinching the inside of his arm and he just kept sleeping. This freaked him out, so they rushed him in to the Children's ER announcing that they had an unresponsive toddler. This sent a ton of people into a flurry of activity. Once again, as soon as they went to move him he woke up screaming and fighting. They cut off his shirt, started an IV, put a much better brace on his arm, and switched for a smaller neck brace. They ordered a CT scan of his head and X-rays of his neck, elbow and wrist. They said they would likely keep him overnight for observation.

Poor little guy! Check out the messy IV and the pool of blood.

I won't bore you with the details of the next eight hours of our time in the ER other than to say that the radiology tech was less than gentle (but his wrist did look a lot more straight when she was done) and that everyone kept commenting on how sleepy he was. It turns out that he was just tired (like I had thought the whole time), and all his tests came back great, with the exception of the wrist, which was obviously broken. When they finally decided we could go home the doctor came in and said "How comfortable do you feel going home?". I'm sure it doesn't surprise anyone that I quickly replied "Super comfortable!". It was a long day! Allison picked us up about 10pm and took us back to our car which was still at Mt. Auburn Hospital (thanks again). The worst part was that Bob was in Holyoke so I was flying solo the whole time. I'm sure it all seemed a lot more scary for him from a distance, what with talk of a neurosurgeon and all. I was mostly starving and sick of people asking me if I was holding on okay. I hate crying, and it is the last thing Ezra needs to see with all that crazy stuff going on. I can stay calm and collected, but the more people ask, the more you feel like breaking down.

With the neck brace off and finally able to sit up a little he was much happier.

This picture pretty much sums up the day!

They had to send us home in a gown and blanket since they cut off his shirt.

He was just ready to go to bed by the time we got home.

It took Ezra a couple of days to adjust to the cast, but he is doing really well. We even went to the zoo the next morning. That will be another post though. I love when people ask him what happened to his arm he just points to it and says "broken" or "blue cast". He is such a trooper and needs to be with luck like his!