The Great Poo "Incident" of 2009

WARNING: This post is not for the faint of stomach. Please read at your own risk.

If you follow this blog regularly, you may have noticed that in a recent post, I mentioned a debate about a certain blog topic that was arguably too "gross" to publish. I know you've all been on pins and needles since then, not only from curiosity about the event itself but also wondering what could have happened that I, especially, would feel uncertain about posting. (Not being known for my subtlety or sense of restraint...) Well, wait no more, dear readers! I present to you, "The Great Poo Incident of 2009!"

It all started innocently enough last Friday morning. As it was supposed to be pleasantly warm that day, I dressed Maddie in a little denim jumper and t-shirt. Her diapers are G-diapers (Yay, G-diapers! If you don't know what they are, check them out here.), and since they're pretty cute, I didn't think I needed to put anything else over them. Foreshadowing, people. It's what the good writers do. Having dressed, fed, and otherwise prepared my child for the day, I dropped her off at daycare with Laura, drove to work, and prepared to spend the majority of my day in a meeting with clients, sans phone.

Meanwhile, back in Olathe, Laura puts Maddie down for her morning nap and goes about her day, which at this point includes entertaining the two children at daycare who don't take a morning nap. Around 11 a.m., she hears Maddie fussing, and she goes upstairs to get her out of the pack 'n' play and bring her down to play. Little does she know what horrible fate awaits her on the other side of the bedroom door...

(If this were TV, I'd take a commercial break here, just so you know.)

On entering the room, Laura finds Maddie on her hands and knees in the pack 'n' play, whimpering, and completely caked in poo. Yes, poo! Apparently, during her nap, the cute g-diaper that I had so thoughtlessly left uncovered came loose (or was helped loose, we'll never know), and then, Maddie proceeded to poop in the bed. Being still somewhat new to this world, and it must be said, never having been allowed to play with her own feces before, she proceeded to make short work of the "matter." Laura said it was everywhere--all over the pack 'n' play, the crib sheet, her clothes, her pacifier, her hands, feet, hair, face. Yeah...it was not a pretty sight.

Now comes the slightly ridiculous part. After bathing Maddie (that must have been fun), Laura becomes concerned that Maddie may have ingested or inhaled some of the poo. BUT, instead of calling our pediatrician, whom she has the number for, she dialed 911 and had a team of paramedics come to the house to assess her. (Note: Maybe I'm an irresponsible mother, but if this had happened at home, I would have been disgusted, had a long battle with my gag reflex, bathed her, and then probably had another battle with my gag reflex, but I would have even thought about calling her doctor, much less an ambulance, but then, maybe that's why I don't run a daycare.) The paramedics arrive, listen to her lungs, which sound clear, and then ask Laura if she'd like to have her transported to the nearest hospital. Now remember, I'm in a meeting without my phone, Jon sees patients and doesn't carry his phone with him, and Laura thinks he's in Gardner when he's really in Overland Park, so through all of this, she can't get a hold of either of us. Luckily, she decided not to have her transported; otherwise, Jon and I would have been charged several mortgage payments because our daughter decided to go all nude-beach on us.

So, there you have it, "The Great Poo Incident of 2009." Laura sent all the laundry home, but Jon had it all washed and dried by the time I arrived home (the sheet and pacifier were beyond salvation, sadly), so really, writing it up for the blog is the most I've had to do, which was nice. Well, that, and try not to cry on the way home, picturing my baby covered in poo.

Needless to say, there will be no more uncovered G-diapers, ever, I don't care how damn cute they are...

Mommy's Little Helper

And now, a cute picture and video break:

I got some help unloading the dishwasher on Monday evening. (Obviously, she's starting to "pull up.")

(And yes, in typical baby fashion, she went straight for the knives...)

I Love You Madly (or WAAAAAAA!)

It's been quite the week at the Webster-Stoppel household. We have several things to report, and for the first time, we had to have a discussion about whether or not we should put something on the blog. It wasn't too personal or too controversial. No, it may be too gross. Seriously...but we'll come to that later.

Let's go back to the beginning: It all started last Thursday. It had been a perfectly normal day, which for us means nothing worth blogging. Then, we put Maddie to bed, and as soon as I left the room, she started screaming. I don't just mean she was fussing or even really crying. She was screaming. I waited about five minutes, but when it still didn't stop, I went in, put her pacifier back in, rubbed her back, and left again. Once more, when the door shut, the screaming started. The second time I went in, she was sitting up in her crib, tears pouring down her little face, looking at me like I just killed a puppy in front of her. This time, I picked her up and rocked her, calmed her down, and put her back in bed, but again, as soon as I left the room, screaming. I finally ended up nursing her again, until she fell asleep.

Repeat, Friday night, Sunday night, Monday night, and Thursday night of this week. If she wasn't so exhausted from her day (or from doing exactly the same thing during her second nap--not the first, only the second--at daycare, thus taking no nap) that she fell asleep while nursing before bed, she screamed as soon as we left the room. Those of you who are parents know where this is going: Yes, we have entered separation anxiety territory.

For those of you who don't know, separation anxiety usually occurs when a child figures out that Mom and Dad (or whomever he/she is most attached to, which in our case includes Laura, our daycare provider) exist separately from them. Once this clicks, mentally, the child realizes that Mom and Dad can leave, but unfortunately, he/she doesn't make the connection that Mom and Dad will come back. Children going through this stage of development believe that when their parents leave the room, they may never see them again, which is obviously terrifying.

In Maddie's case, this may have been exacerbated by the fact that she's teething, and we think she just finished up a growth spurt, but it was stressful for everyone, none the less. We've spent the last 8+ months teaching her to put herself to sleep, and we didn't want to ruin it all now, so we've decided to go with the cry-it-out method. (Note: Someone at work was kind enough to tell me that by letting Maddie cry-it-out, I was increasing her risk of SIDS. People can be so kind...) It's not easy, listening to your daughter scream for you for 20 minutes, but she does eventually settle down and go to sleep, and she's still sleeping through the night, so that's good.

The rest of our, um, interesting, week will follow in the subsequent posts.

P.S. - We think it may be resolving now, but since I've typed this, it'll probably come back full-force tonight. I walk on the wild side, people; I tempt fate.

Learning the sippy cup

Happy Mother's Day

Here is Alaina's first Mother's Day breakfast. She had pancakes with strawberries and home-made whipped cream. I also made a typical "MOM" pancake, to prepare Alaina for Maddie's pancakes in the years to come. I am also trying to set a precedent for Father's Day ;) Happy Mother's Day!