A Not-So-Fun First

**UPDATE**

This morning, Ryan is RUNNING!! He still says his foot hurts, but clearly not enough to keep him down:) YAY!

Today we experienced an unfortunate first. Ryan's first x-rays.

My day started nicely. Lucas let me sleep in. The twins woke me up sweetly. Lucas told me Ryan wouldn't come unless he was carried because he said he hurt his foot. I assumed he stepped on a toy (that's how I regularly hurt MY feet!), and didn't think much of it. It wasn't until after baby music time, an hour later, when he chose to stay in his crib with his books rather than come play with Sis, that I realized I never put him down between me waking up and baby music time. I had no clue what the extent of his injured foot was. It took about 30 seconds for me to figure out. I tried putting him down and he cried and wouldn't put his foot down. When I asked him to take a step, he sweetly did, and fell over, and cried. Lucas and I went over the whole morning, and while he felt there was a specific activity (penguin wrestling) that could have led to an injury, Ryan NEVER cried. And then I had to call the pediatrician and tell them my son wouldn't walk and I didn't know why. I felt like the worst mom ever.

We couldn't get an appointment until the afternoon, so we propped up his foot and let him watch movies. Allie commiserated with him :)

After examining him (throughout which he constantly smiled & never cried, even when we could tell it was hurting), she sent us for x-rays to see if it was a fracture. We headed to the hospital (where employees marveled over my cheerful children, and re-assured me that they see many toddlers with similar injuries who don't cry) for this unfortunate first. Ryan was great. He thought the x-ray machine was so cool. He would hold his leg exactly like the technician told him. She said he was the best kid they had ever. I was so proud. Then she gave him some stickers (including a few for sis)!

He proudly wore all 3 stickers the rest of the day...and asked me to save them on a piece of paper!

Lucas actually needed to do some pastoral visits at the hospital, so the twins and I hung out. We rode the "alligator" - their most favorite adventure thing to do. We checked out EVERY stuffed animal in the gift shop. We bought a couple of the mini-balloons. We hung out in the lobby and cheered up people going by. The twins basically thought they were back at the carnival. I wouldn't have been surprised if Ryan told me that THIS was the best day ever. We know how to do x-rays right!

Hugging their balloons - sunshines & smiley faces...more favorites!

While our hospital visit ended up on a good note - I felt the best possible of all x-ray resulting circumstances - our trip home ventured into the bizarre. Our power was out. And I panicked because the doctor was supposed to call, but our answering machine wasn't working, and I might have missed it, and therefore wouldn't know if my baby was broken until tomorrow (can you hear the hyperventilation I was experiencing?). Then our ancient, corded phone on the wall rang, and it was the doctor, and I was able to relax and focus on finding food for my family!

"I lubs you, Buddy."

She was so good to him all day - picking up toys, giving him the best nap spot, offering hugs.

The x-rays cams back negative. That could mean 2 things: 1) soft tissue injury (deep bruise, slight sprain, etc.) or 2) hairline fracture (which frequently don't show up on initial x-rays). The next 48 hours will tell us which it is. If it is a soft tissue injury, it will be significantly better in 48 hours. If it is a fracture it will be the same/worse. So we wait. He limped around for a few minutes as I was talking on the phone with the doctor and we were ecstatic. Then he returned back to his non-weight bearing status (although significantly more whiny). So we'll see what tomorrow brings!