ER Visits With Baby

I'd like to start with I am hoping to be able to get you two brand new posts this week. I realize I only have 3 days to do this but I am going to try. This post is a post I honestly hoped I wouldn't have to write EVER, or at least more realistically until next year, but here I am having some wisdom to impart. At some point you are going to have to take your little darling to the emergency room. It sucks and it is so scary. You are worried about if you really need to go, how long you will be there, what you need to take and that whole time you are gathering your thing the words "Oh my GOD! Something is wrong with my BABY!!!!" and your mind instantly jumps to the worst possibilities. I know this because on Tuesday night I had to take Cutes Patoots in.
     The short story is I put her down to bed like I normally do but when I left the room she started wailing. Cutes is not a fussy baby. She very rarely cries and this particular cry knifed right through to my very core. I went back up, picked her up to calm her then tried putting her back down. The second she left my arms the wailing commenced. I tried a few other things including sending a message to Papasaururex, who was working, to ask about the behavior or more accurately to whine that our normally angelic bedtime baby was suddenly throwing down. I went back up armed with a grandma on speaker phone singing because last week I was sick and I am still coughing and so singing was completely out. I am so grateful that Grammasaurusrex was up at a ridiculous hour and willing to sing for Cutes while I took her temperature. Cutes was running a 102 degree fever. I knew she felt warm but I didn't expect it to be that high. I immediately grabbed Cutes from her crib and started running around like a chicken with my head cut off, throwing random things in my bag. Once I got to the hospital and got us checked-in I realized what a poor job I had done. I only had 3 diapers, a handful of wipes, no change of clothes if she got sick, no change for the vending machines, nothing but my phone to entertain me and the battery only had a 55% charge. I did think to grab a blanket, extra milk, and Cutes' iPhone so she had her music and games (no I did not buy her the phone, I just gave her my old one. It was cheaper than buying an mp3 player and bonus I can put games and other busy bee stuff on it.) This was a disaster. I was also only 2 hours away from my pump time and an ER visit is a minimum of 3 hours on a short trip! What was I thinking?!?! The answer is I wasn't.
     My solution to this simple you can either create an ER Trip checklist that I promise you, you will forget you have or to have a bag packed with the "you will forget" essentials. In this bag you should pack:

1. $3 in quarters or other change per person. That will cover at least one drink and one snack for everybody. obviously if baby is still just drinking milk you can leave out their allotment but if you are breastfeeding or pumping the extra might be nice for you mom.
2. An unopened bottle of water per person. This way you can save your change for a caffeine boost at 2am when you are still sitting there.
3. A baby blanket
4. A change of clothes for the baby, and a least a shirt for mom or dad. This way if anyone gets sick or medicine is spit out you aren't sitting there looking any shabbier than you already do because you couldn't be bothered with matching clothes on the way out the door. Hey if your shoes are a pair you look like a rock star in my book. ( yes there was another mom their with mis-matched shoes and a sick baby. I completely understood.)
5. Spit-up cloths
6. A book, cross-word, sudoku whatever interests you that doesn't require power so when baby manages to fall asleep you aren't bored and draining your phone battery that you will need for the influx of "how's the baby doing" calls and texts.
7. Pacifier, if your LO uses one
8. 5 diapers per diaper wearer and a full package of unopened wipes (this way no worries about them drying out).
9. A spare nursing cover if you nurse or pump.

Now when the time comes all you have to remember is to grab a bottle, extra milk, baby's favorite toy, wallet, and if you are a pumper PLEASE for the love of your boobs your pump, which probably has a battery-pack that should be kept with it WITH batteries. And seriously matching shoes over rated when it comes to the kiddo. I hope this helps someone else because my first ER visit did not go smoothly. We were only there a short time (3.5 hours) but we could have been there a lot longer and I didn't have some of the things I needed. We go home and there were no diapers left, I had 1 wipe, was famished, and my phone was nearly dead.
    Cutes by the way just has a non-specific bug of some sort, doctor speak for "I have no idea." With only a fever to go on and no other symptoms they were completely confused. She is doing better now.