I never got around to posting this, but seeing as I came across the photos, I may as well put it up here. Back in May of this year Emily got particularly sick. A nasty virus (which I can no longer remember the name of) was doing the rounds, and it hit poor Emily hard, so much so that it became literally impossible for her to keep any food or fluids down.
It was more serious than what we could handle, and so after a trip to the doctor for diagnosis, Emily was immediately booked in for observation and drip feeding at Mediclinic Vergelegen Hospital.
Obviously, Chantelle opted to stay at hospital with her baby, leaving me and Jessica to fend for ourselves back home.
The end result?
Three days and two nights of extreme boredom for Chantelle, a slightly better (but at least out of danger) Emily, and a hospital bill of R9,500.
(And a slightly worried Jessica who couldn’t understand why Mommy and Emily weren’t home and why we had to drive over to visit them each and every evening after work/school!)
However, it was her later trip (in June) to the emergency room at Vergelegen’s Hospital that is far more embarrassing for me.
One evening I was playing roughly with Emily on our bed as I always do, when she decided that she had enough of her daddy’s relentless tickles and clambered off over the edge of the bed. However, in doing so, she grabbed at the blanket on her way down (we have a very high bed), and the result was her doing an awkward swing and landing on her bum.
It was immediately apparent that something had gone wrong, because it was tears, howling, and holding a very limp arm at her side, completely unable to lift it up in order to ask for a consoling hug like she always does.
Frantically I tried to figure out what was wrong, but eventually admitting defeat, I phoned Chantelle and told her to come home immediately, which she did, gave me a stern talking to, and then rushed Emily off to the emergency room at Vergelegen hospital.
Our suspicions were confirmed by the doctor on duty – definitely a pulled elbow (also known as Nursemaid’s elbow). He popped her little arm bone back into the socket/joint, and after a bit of an observation period (in which she was apparently very cute, marching up and down and interacting with everyone else in the emergency room), Chantelle and my baby girl returned home.
Oops. Needless to say, this wasn’t the proudest moment of my parenting journey!