Moving Forward

Bad Kassie

"Go crawl to Daddy!" I encourage Zach, as he scoots across the living room. 

Brad quickly reaches out for him, the second Zach gets close.

"Good job, Buddy!" He Congratulates him, causing Zach to start smiling and clapping for himself.

"Now if only you sister would start too."

I look at Addie, who is currently cuddled up in my lap, showing absolutely no signs of crawling, or letting go of Brad and I anytime soon.

"She just loves us too much."

We pull them closer together, watching them play with their little toys, enjoying the fact that they get along much better than the older two.

"It's so hard to believe that 8 months ago they were moving around inside you beating the shit out of each other."

"I'm kinda surprised they didn't come out with black and blue marks. They were always fighting."

Brad moves closer, wrapping me up in his tight grip as we watch everything.

"Mommy!!" Kassie runs in the room, ruining our quiet "My mouth hurt!"

"Let me see, baby." I pull her closer, thinking she bit her tongue, but don't see any blood or marking "Honey where does it hurt?"

"Here." She mumbles, pointing to her throat.

"Kassie that's not your mouth." Brad says, taking her from me "You were supposed to be sleeping, did you sneak in the kitchen and eat something?"

"Yeah!" She perks up "I swallow money."

"What?" I stare at her, waiting for her to start laughing and tell us that Ava told her to do this "What money?"

"From the table."

"Shit..." I try to keep calm, remembering that there was some extra change laying on the table earlier "Let me see your mouth again."

Brad holds her still while I hold her mouth open, trying to look down her throat, but quickly realize it won't work. 

"Mommy it hurt!!"

She starts crying, which quickly turns into coughing and what sounds like choking.

"I'm gonna take her in.  This isn't good."

I stand up with her, quickly grabbing my purse and keys.

"Kassie, how many coins did you swallow?"

"Two."

Brad walks up to us, helping me get her in the car.

"Let me know what happens." He walks up to kiss me "She'll be fine."

"I hope so." I sigh, trying to hold back tears "I'll call you whenever I know."

I drive to the hospital listening to Kassie go from talking to coughing, and pray that she's going to be okay and the coins are not blocking her airway.

"Kassidy Pitt?"

I grab Kassie, carrying her into the exam room.

"So I see here she swallowed some change.  Do you know what kind?  Pennies, quarters?"

"She won't tell us.  I think we scared her when we freaked out after she told us."

"This happens pretty often with young children." The nurse holds up a chart in front of Kassie with the coins on it "Honey can you point to what you swallowed?"

Kassie shyly points to a nickle and a dime.

"She's been coughing almost nonstop and her breathing sounded off, but she hasn't started choking at all."

"We're going to give her a room for now, and the doctor will be in soon.  If you notice her breathing get worse, or her start to choke, push this button right away."

I set Kassie on the bed, handing her my purse to destroy to keep her occupied.  She acts as if nothing happened, except for every time she coughs, when I can tell she's in pain.

I text Brad, letting him know what is going on, and decide to call someone to comfort me.  Someone who won't judge what happened.

Sherry bursts into the room about 30 minutes later, looking for Kassie right away.

"They just took her for X-Rays.  The doctor is a little worried about them blocking her airway."

"Are you okay?" She sits in the vacant seat next to me, staring at the wall "This is the first any of them have really been hurt."

"I've been better." I admit, thinking about everything "We should have known she wouldn't stay in bed for her whole nap.  She gets out all the time, I just thought we would hear if she came downstairs."

"Jen you know how quiet they are when they're doing something bad." She pulls me closer, laying my head on her shoulder "You can't blame yourself or Brad for this.  She knew not to eat money, but she's a curious toddler.  It happens."

She waits for me to say something, but then continues on, knowing I need the reassurance.

"Do you remember the time your brother ate a whole tube of Thomas toothpaste?  I beat myself up for weeks over that just because I fell asleep while he was napping.  I didn't sleep right for almost a month."

"But he turned out okay..." I add, knowing that's what she's getting at "I know I shouldn't be so worried, I just feel like I could have stopped her."

A few minutes later, Kassie comes running back into the room, looking perfectly fine.

"The X-rays show that the coins aren't lodged in her esophagus, so I'm not too worried about that, but I think Kassie has something else to tell you."

I pick her up as she runs over to me laughing, and know this won't be good.

"I eated more coins. And some jelly."

"What do you mean?" I look at her confused, unsure of what she's trying to say.

"Well if you look at the X-ray, you can clearly see that she swallowed 5 coins, all of which have easily slid down her esophagus due to whatever jelly she ate with them. She claims it was strawberry and very good."

"Oh my God.  My husband made her sister a sandwich a few minutes before.  I didn't even think about that."

"The good news is she seems to be perfectly fine.  I don't think you have anything to worry about, Mrs. Pitt."

"Thank you so much!" I practically hug the doctor, happy that I just over reacted "I hope she learns from this and doesn't keep eating change."

"I won't, mommy."