Lately I've been paying more attention to expiration dates. Half the time, they're not expiration dates, but best by dates, which means I can usually still get some use out of the item. Every night I give Jace some rice cereal with breast milk right before going to bed. The idea is that it fills him up better so he sleeps longer. He is sleeping better lately, so I don't intend to stop this new part of our bedtime routine anytime soon. Last night I couldn't pump because I'd fed him too recently, so I didn't have breast milk to mix with his cereal. I've mixed it with water before, but I hate to do that because it's awfully flavorless. So, I have several sample containers of formula and I thought I'd try one of those. The container I chose was expired, but I thought I would be ok, since it was just a little bit. I mixed up some formula and put in the rice cereal. Jace happily ate it and then I went to put the dishes away. The formula made more than I needed, so I thought I was so clever to save it for tomorrow, so I wouldn't have to pump. This plan was working better than I thought. Or so I thought.
When I came back to wash off his face (boy that baby can make a mess of food!) his face had started turning red around his mouth. As I walked to the bathroom and took the bib off, white blotches started appearing around his mouth and his face was getting redder. I started panicking. I took him to the bedroom where the light was on so I could get a better look at his face. The blotches were spreading around his mouth and a trail under his chin, where I'd seen the milk run down his chin. It continued to spread onto his chest where it was getting really red too. I was watching the spread of this rash as I was sitting there looking at my precious baby.
So I did what any good mother would do. I panicked. I called my husband and described what was happening. Jace, who was perfectly happy and amused the entire time, was getting redder in the face as I talked. The rash was spreading across his chin. We decided we needed to get it checked, and I called my mother who is a nurse. The rash continued to get worse, but now I couldn't see the white splotches as well because it looked like he was swelling and getting redder. Because of the swelling, we decided to go to the emergency room. My husband was on campus watching a movie for class, so after I called him, he started running home. I was crying, but started packing the baby up to go. By time I was done packing Jace up, Rod was home. He made it home in record time!
We got to the hospital and checked in. I have never seen such a crowded emergency room in my life. It's awfully hard not to get frustrated as you're panicking about your baby's sudden rash and wonder why people with bad coughs are being admitted first.... I have never been very quick to cry, until after I got married. My husband and I often joke it's because I never had something worth enough to cry about until then. Having a baby makes that ten times worse. I was furious as I watched others taken in and no one cared about my baby. We were triaged as everyone else was, and then waited in line to be seen. By time we were finally seen, over an hour had passed and Jace's symptoms were completely gone.
We never were actually seen. Jace's symptoms went away, Jace had been happy the whole time, thinking this was the greatest trick to get out of bedtime, so we went up to the front desk and asked if we could go home. The receptionist assured us that we had been fast-tracked (If that's fast tracked, may I never be slow tracked!!!!) and just at that moment, we were called back to be seen. But Jace's symptoms were gone. So after the nurse did some hemming and hawing that made me nervous about being a bad mommy, we signed the paperwork that we decided we didn't need to be seen and we went home and put Jace to bed. Then I went and cried the hardest I'd ever cried because I was so pent up with emotions. Anger at not feeling like I was being taken care of, frayed nerves from worrying so much, worry that I'd made the wrong decision and I should have just had them take a look at him.
Well, it's the next morning, Jace is fine and happy. No rash, no worries. So in the end, everything ended up fine. I knew emergency room visits were most likely part of the parenting territory, but I did not expect it to come this soon. I expected it to be for broken bones and such when Jace was old enough to get into foolish accidents, at least eight. I did not expect to go for a baby, panicking the whole time not knowing if I should be more worried or not and watching no one care. I hope I never have to go to the emergency room for something like that again. That was far too much excitement for this mommy!
