After Midnight....

It's midnight on Sunday night and I should be snuggled up in my cozy bed sleeping soundly. Why am I in the drafty playroom blogging instead? Because Hays and Matt are out on a little ER adventure, and I'm anxiously awaiting their return, that's why.

Hays was fine this morning- eating, playing, driving me crazy- the usual. This afternoon I went to run some errands with my mom and got a call from Matt saying that Hays had thrown up twice. We figured he had a little virus, but later in the afternoon, he seemed fine. He didn't throw up any more and ate a huge dinner. We thought it was weird and kept musing aloud, "I wonder what made him throw up?" But he went to sleep with no problems, so we kind of shrugged it off.

Fast forward to 11:30 pm. Matt and I were picking up the playroom, getting ready to go to bed. Matt found a battery operated candle lying on the floor- minus the battery. A quick search around the floor turned up the casing to the battery, but no battery. We searched every nook and cranny, but couldn't find it anywhere. With a growing sense of dread, I called the poison control center to let them know that our two year old possibly swallowed a button battery, and to see what steps we should take. They recommended an immediate x-ray. Apparently, that particular type of battery can separate easily- particularly if it's sitting in a child's stomach, and the leaking battery acid can burn a hole in the child's stomach.

We really hated the idea of waking up our soundly sleeping baby and taking him out in the frigid cold, but we hated the idea of battery acid burning holes in his internal organs more. So I woke the little guy up as gently as possible. Gave him some milk, bundled him into his coat, and sent him and his daddy off into the dark, cold night with Stinky monkey, cozy blankie, and his chocolate milk. So now I'm just waiting (and blogging) to hear the results of the x-ray. Chances are, the battery is somewhere in a hidden corner of the house, and this was a pointless middle-of-the-night excursion, but what can you do?

**UPDATE**
According to the x-ray, Hays did not, in fact, swallow a battery. So we totally woke our kid up and drug him out in the middle of the freezing cold night for nothing. Yay. But such is life. We couldn't take the chance. But the question remains, where the hell is that battery?????

**UPDATE- Part Deux**
So after my last update, they tested Hays for strep, RSV and the flu. Turns out, he has strep. Poor baby. The silver lining on that little cloud is that we caught it early, so he didn't have to sicker and sicker for the next day or two. He's on antibiotics now, so he should be right as rain in a day or two. Of course, he'll miss the last day of preschool tomorrow (picture me sobbing uncontrollably), but he'll feel better. Now we're just crossing our fingers and toes that no one else gets strep, because that's some nasty funk.