Oh, my, have I got a story... the strangest thing happened this past Sunday afternoon.  All was going well- I had planned the day before and had a meal with for lunch after church and before our nursing home visit  I had practiced the piano (I was scheduled to play this week), and I was getting diapers changed as we were getting ready to head over to the nursing home.  The baby needed to be changed- outfit and all... as I was buttoning up the new 'onesie' I noticed something looked a little odd with her little foot.
    You know how hairs seem to stick to every inch of those fuzzy pajamas?  And how they even get on the inside? And how sometimes you find one wrapped around a little one's toe?  And you think 'oh, my, that looks uncomfortable. Here, let me get that off for you'... Well, what if you can't get it off?
    My baby had a hair, or a few hairs, I'm really not sure... wrapped very tightly around two of her toes.  I mean tightly.  It was knotted.  It had caused swelling, which worsened the cutting off of the circulation... I started to whimper.  I called my husband over... who pulled out his pocket hunting knife... and proceeded to get between the toes and cut a part of the hair knot.  We were able, after much effort and much holding down an increasingly uncomfortable baby, to get what we hoped was all of the hair off of the middle toe of her left foot.  I say we hoped, because it was almost impossible to tell- the swelling had caused this deep crevice where the hair was and that crevice doesn't just go back to normal once the pressure is relieved...
    The second toe (next to her big toe) was more swollen and when we tried to get at some more of the crazy hair, it just broke off at the knot leaving nothing to grab, not even if we had tweezers, which we didn't. (Mental note- pack good tweezers in diaper bag, you never know when you may need it!)  I tried to get at it some with a safety pin (the one that was holding up Liberty's skirt...) -no good.  By now I was whimpering more.  It really looked like her toe was being cut off- it was scary...
    We realized that short of slicing her toe up we were not going to be able to deal with this ourselves.  We needed to get her to a doctor.  We packed up quickly, sent word to the others ministering at the nursing home that we wouldn't be making it today, and headed for the nearest "Urgent Care" clinic- just a couple miles up the road.  I cried on the way there.  What if my baby girl lost her toe?!  Ended up in the hospital?  Needed surgery?  Was in pain?  Oh, no mommy wants her baby to be in pain...  When we got their I felt very awkward saying "This is going to sound real strange, but my baby has this hair wrapped so tightly around her toe..." as the woman behind the counter nodded... "You've seen this before?!?!" I gasped.  "Yep, we've seen it.  I'll have a nurse take a look."
    Well, the nurse took a look... "it's really in there"... no kidding lady, that's why we're here... she went to talk to the doctor... then came back and said the doctor wouldn't be able to take care of it here, they didn't have the right tools and she may need to be sedated so they can cut it off... "You need to get her to the ER"  AAAAHHHH! The ER!!!
    So we all piled back in the van and cruised to the nearest hospital, a couple miles away.  The triage nurse there assured me that they see it "all the time"... What?!  This is my sixth baby, I have many friends with 3, 4, 5, 6 kids... Never heard of this happening!  She assured me that my baby would be okay, that they'd get it off soon, and then sent us to wait a few minutes in a room full of sick people.  (That's what I hate about Emergency Room waiting areas!  Who knows what we were exposed to!)
    We got called back and the whole family piled into a room and watched as the nurse first tried to cut away what she could from the tiny mass of hair caught in the deepening crevice of my baby girl's toe.  It started to bleed- there was so much pressure all the way around that the hair was now slicing into and through the skin- I really whimpered at that one.  She stopped and said the doctor will be right in.  There was a table full of tools, including the dreaded scalpel.  There were some very fine and pointy tweezers and other instruments I didn't even recognize...  He brought in a big fancy light, and some interesting head gear with magnifying lenses...
    He explained that even though they would shoot her up with Lidocaine, there would be much screaming and I may not want to stay in the room.  Well, I would've cried I'm sure, but I didn't want to leave my baby.  I turned and saw my other children lined up, turning pale, already plugging their ears in preparation for the screaming... and decided I'd better take them for a walk down the halls.  We walked back and forth, trying not to interact with any more sick people, and checking periodically to see if the screaming had stopped.  It took a while... 5 or 10 minutes is a really long time when your baby is screaming and in pain...

    When it was over, the doctor explained to me that he had made two deep incisions on her toe to be sure to cut through any hair that was still there.  Then he went all the way around the toe, digging in that groove with a tweezerish thing, pulling stuff out all the way around.  He looked the best he could with a bright light and the magnifying lenses but could not be absolutely sure he had gotten everything, it was too hard to see with the bit of blood and the swelling... they kept us there to check the blood flow, or capillary refill, which looked good- so it seemed he must've gotten everything.  When we had first arrived, her capillary refill was quite slow- not good- but by then it was almost instantaneous, a very, very good sign.

    When the doctor stepped back in, he told us that he had run into the head of pediatric emergency and after mentioning our case, the other doctor answered with a "huh, that makes 5 in the past week..." !!??!! Five? At this one suburban hospital?!  They said they see it all the time, on fingers, on toes, and unfortunately, on little boys- if you know what I mean...  And apparently it's very common around 2 months old as this is when the mothers hormones are shifting back to normal and she typically starts losing more hair, the hairs that she wasn't losing many of during pregnancy now start dropping like flies... or should I say like birds over Australia?

    The doctor said that by the looks of how swollen her toe was and how deep the hair was cutting, that it had to have been on there at least a day... ugh... how did we not notice that one?!  And that yes, indeed, if gone undetected for too long, it really can result in a wee one losing a tiny appendage- which only legitimized my panicky fears... thanks for that, sir...  and praise the Lord we found it in time!  He also mentioned that the deep grooves on her toes would take a while to look normal again, and then he added "several days even..."  I told him I was so glad that he mentioned that "or this time tomorrow I would've been panicking, big time... " and I would have been...

   It's been several days now, and it looks pretty good.  Her precious little toes are the color they should be, the size they should be, and pretty much the texture they should be.  No signs of infection from her little open wounds, which should be long-closed by now.

    So there you have it- starting the new year off with a little trauma like only the Williams can!  Last year it was respiratory problems, this year a "Hair Tourniquet on Toe"- yes, they really have a name for it!

 

Enjoying each and every one of her little toes (and thanking the Lord for them all!),

ali

    Oh, she is so precious!  And so far she is my best sleeper at night... over the last few weeks she has progressed from sleeping for 3 hours to 3 1/2, to 4, to an incredible 5 hours at night between feedings.  Oh, what a joy!  My last couple babies nursed every 2 hours for many, many, many weeks... months even... that was hard... but the Lord has been merciful to me this time (could it be this baby's name?) and I am staying relatively well-rested.
    Enough for now,
    much more later, I'm sure...

    Enjoying them,
    because of Him,
    ali

    Had enough?  Not here, we can't get enough of our little Mercy!

    Enjoying them,
    because of Him,
    ali

    I just love it when tiny babies curl up and fall asleep on Mommy!  They grow so fast, I'm definitely cherishing the moments.  She'll be walking and talking before I know it... but for now she's my tiny newborn baby and I'm loving every minute with her.

    Enjoying them,
    because of Him,
    ali

    Enjoying them
    because of Him,
    ali

    I could just hold her all day... except that I can't... I have a bad neck, and for the first couple of weeks after every baby I go through quite a painful adjustment period with all of the looking down and the holding/lifting things with my arms all the time nursing and just cooing.  It hit me yesterday pretty hard and I spent the day nursing my neck and shoulders with Tiger Balm and heat packs & ice packs... and shushing the rest of the children to keep my headache at bay (headaches from neck pain are excruciating...)  So I'm having to be careful about body mechanics and being sure to have pillows supporting her while I nurse (I need to fix my torn Boppy Pillow) as I don't really want to be taking too much motrin, or any pain killers, while nursing.  It will pass, my body will adjust, and my chiropractor visits will be a bit more regular for a while.  She is worth every ache and pain.

    For our Soup Party on Saturday my aunt and uncle not only brought soup, but they brought me these beautiful big pink roses- thank you Linda & Steve! 
    Monday & Tuesday brought yet 2 more meals, and a knock on the door- a special delivery- that looks lovely on top of my desk (in my kitchen where I sit at my computer, too much on some days...)

    Isn't it beautiful?!  And soooo very soft.  What a blessing! Thank you, thank you!
   
    Then my sister came up with another baby outfit (my mom had already found a couple of adorable gender-nonspecific sleepers!) saying she couldn't wait any longer, so I should hurry up and have that baby so everyone would know wether to buy pink or blue!  Oh, and she brought a pack of newborn diapers- diapers are always a blessing- I'm a firm believer in practical, usable, gifts!  There were also cookies, I'm pretty sure those were for me and the kids... at least I hope so because that's who ate them!  Then when she  came to visit in the hospital she had with her the most adorable little pink jumper with embroidered roses on it... so very, very flowery and feminine- this will be the daintiest, girliest girl yet.  Oh so cute!
    Thursday night our Pastor's wife brought us a wonderful meal- a scrumptious enchilada casserole/hotdish, a veggie loaded salad, and a big bowl of freshly baked cookies!  I will be getting that recipe asap and will try to remember to post it to share- it was a hit- I loved it, DH loved it, the kids all liked it, it's a keeper- as soon as I get it, that is.
    Friday my wonderful aunt LouAnn drove up and brought lunch- one of our absolute favorites- Papa Murphy's take and bake pizzas- if you don't have a Papa Murphy's pizza nearby, I'm so very, very, sorry.  Their gourmet chicken garlic has been on our top 10 list ever since our first taste.  So we enjoyed a Hawaiian and a stuffed chicken and bacon pizza!  (And we'll be enjoying them again for lunch today!)  She also added to the pink, flowery, embroidered collection of adorable little girl outfits.
    Later, my mom and dad stopped by- my dad helped my DH pick out and install a new kitchen faucet so we shouldn't continue to have water drip down the handle and across the counter and onto the floor!  There was a bit of comedic adventure involved with that project... but... my mom brought a big pot of scalloped potatoes which went into the freezer to enjoy sometime next week as we had another meal coming that evening!  And she too added to the pink pile!  Oh, fresh new little baby outfits are so much fun!
    For supper we were blessed (and indeed it is such a blessing- they drove 45 minutes to bring us that meal, each way, in the dark, and the cold!) with a 'pizza pot pie'- a new one for us, but also a keeper.  Not only am I being blessed with the actual food, but with the new recipe ideas to expand my cooking repetoire, as well as my children's taste buds.
    And today, we're having our yearly soup party- so people will be coming over and bringing soup! And crackers, and bread, cheese, chips, salsa, soda, cookies, you name it, they'll bring it.  And I can just sit and enjoy the family fellowship and the smorgasborg of goodies.

    And this one was taken the morning before going in... with my girls attached at my side...

    It was a wonderful, uncomplicated birth and she is a wonderfully healthy little girl.  (yes, 8 lbs. 8 oz.  is little for us!)  I will post more soon- much, much, more... but now I need to nap!  and nurse... and nurse some more, then nap some more... but eventually I will get back to the computer.
    Thank you all for your continued prayers and encouraging words- it is such a blessing to have such a wide circle of friends! 
    Enjoying them,
    because of Him,
    ali