Rewind-
Aaron and Alex hung out by themselves most of the afternoon allowing me some time to veg in the bedroom with a movie and ice cream (it was a lovely time I might say). When they came down to pull me from my ice cream coma, Alex had something to show me. Aaron stood Alex up, handed him a ball, he threw it, Aaron picked it up and said "come here, Alex." And omigoodness, Alex took the smoothest 4-5 steps I could imagine him taking at this point. They repeated this sequence about 5 or 6 times while I laughed and cried in amazement and joy over his accomplishment. (My little baby boy was walking!!!)
We went about our evening. Alex enjoyed his dinner of ravioli and bread (mmmm). He took a huge gulp of water and almost choked on it. Before he got down from his high chair, he burped or spit up a tiny bit. (Not common at all for him. I mean, my kiddo loves his food so much that he's definitely not going to let any of it come back up). I wiped him clean of his mess, got him down and went into his playroom (aka, formal living room). I stood him up and told him to show me his new moves. He took 3 aggressive steps forward and then lunged downward...head first into the leg of the table. Aaron heard it from the kitchen and rushed in. As calm as could be, I picked him up and consoled him, telling him he was ok (although I was starting to sweat as my heart raced and that horrible, "I SUCK" feeling poured over me). He cried like he'd never cried before as if to tell me how terribly I had hurt him. The bump on his head started to redden and grow like crazy. As he started to calm down, I handed him to Aaron. I was proud that I held it together but was now feeling sick to my stomach. I felt so horrible..."Why did I let him take those steps away from me? Why wouldn't I set him down so he could walk toward me? He's not going to trust me. He's not going to walk ever again." OK, I was being a bit dramatic because as he was in Aaron's arms, he was returning to his normal, happy, cheery self. (Sigh of relief) The night progressed, we played, he seemed normal and then he spit up. It was just a little bit. And then he did it again...about 5 times. So, we called the pediatrician and got the after hours nurse's line. The nurse asked me a series of questions, "Are his eyes dilating normally, is he playing, does he seem tired, is he able to balance normally, is the bump an inch in size?" Um...I think it was. So, the size of the bump, coupled with the spitting up, were cause for her to call our Doctor. As suspected, they suggested we go to the ER. UGH. I guess this is where our parent intuition came into play. I concluded that the spit up was due to his ridiculously large drink of water at dinner, coupled with his 2 minute crying spell. He was normal in every other way. So, we opted to skip the ER, put him to bed and then watch him from our wonderful video monitor. He moved around in his sleep like he normally does. Feeling good about our decision, I opted to take one more step of caution and got up at 2am to check on him. I went to his crib, touched him, he moved his whole body showing me that he wasn't in that deep of a sleep. Comforted and confident, I went back to bed and set my alarm for 4am. I woke up, looked at the video monitor and saw him move again. That was enough for me. I went back to sleep and rested comfortably until he woke at 7am. I was amazed to see that the huge bump was almost non existent. Amazing how resilient this little child is!!
He is now waking from his nap and all is well. Our first big boo-boo is now behind us!!