A scare

This afternoon I was cutting up some chicken to put in the crockpot for dinner. I had just given Aubrey a snack, and she was playing right in the same room with me. I noticed that she had my bottle of prenatal vitamins in her hand (she had gotten them out of my nightstand drawer), but I didn't think anything of it because it has a child-proof top. She likes to shake them, and since my hands were covered in raw chicken, I thought I would just get them from her when I finished. A few minutes later (literally no more than 5) I went over to take them away form her, and she had somehow gotten the top off. I immediately looked in her mouth, and there was nothing there, but her tongue was pink from the coating on the pills. I grabbed the bottle and read this on the back: WARNING: Accidental overdose of iron-containing products is a leading cause of fatal poisoning in children under 6... In case of accidental overdose, call a doctor or poison control center immediately.

To say that I freaked out would be an understatement. I called David literally sobbing hysterically. I was so scared that this was going to be really bad. He called the doctor to find out what we needed to do (since I was kind of hysterical and couldn't really talk). I was fully prepared for them to tell us to rush her to the emergency room.

To make a long story short[er], the doctor told David to call poison control, and they called me since I had the pill bottle with me. The man from poison control was SO nice, and I was able to calm down while I was talking to him. He asked me to give him all kinds of info off the pill bottle and asked me how much Aubrey weighs. He then asked me how many pills she could have swallowed. I had no clue, but I didn't think it could be many. She only had the top off for a couple of minutes, and those pills are huge. I don't think she could have swallowed them whole without choking, and how would a baby with 2 teeth chew up a large, hard pill? He said he was sure she couldn't have eaten more than 3 (worst case scenario) in that time period. So, he did some calculations and said she would have had to eat 7 or 8 to do any damage. He asked me to count how many pills were left in the bottle, and when I dumped them out, I found a pill that had the coating sucked completely off but that was still intact. I am almost positive that what happened was that she put that one pill in her mouth, sucked on it, realized it tasted gross, and put it back in the bottle. The guy said that she should be fine, but he gave me some things to watch for and said he would call later to check on her.

We've watched her closely all night, and she has been completely normal. She hasn't even had an upset stomach, which he said could happen and would be ok. I really don't think she even ate a pill, and definitely not 8, but it was so scary! I felt terrible after it was all over that I had let that happen. I was really beating myself up over it. David and my mom both told me not to feel terrible... I had no clue that Aubrey would be able to get the top off a child-proof bottle, especially in such a short amount of time. The worst part is that she was right in the same room with me while this happened. I still feel a little like the worst mom in the world, but I'm just SO thankful that it turned out ok. It really put things in perspective for me today. As I was telling David about my day this afternoon, suddenly it didn't seem like such a big deal that this had been a long, napless day. What is important at the end of the day is that my sweet baby is healthy and well. And if tomorrow is a frustrating, napless day too, I hope I can remember to be thankful and praise God for it.