Thank you, Jolene!

OK, one would figure that parents get better at this parenting thing as they go, but I believe I have become addicted to the PHP 24-hour Nurseline that our insurance company offers, because I continue to come up with bright, shiny reasons to call those wonderful nurses. Here's this morning's reason.

It was early Sunday morning. We were having a lazy day, having taken care of all our Sunday obligations the night before, and we three girls were sitting downstairs together giving Ian some extra snooze time before he had to go to work. I was nursing Nora and talking to Fiona about the excitement I miraculously slept through last night. She was telling me animatedly about the nightmare she had in which "a scary decoration cat that goes on the floor turned alive", at which point Dream Fiona "ran away and got up onto a table and the cat got under the table, then onto it, but she got into the bathroom and was safe." How COULD I manage to sleep through all THAT?!

I was so drawn into the vivid description of the tumultuous night which followed that I didn't really notice what Fiona was doing until I saw her pale face and heard her panicked shrieks. She had stuck one of Nora's snap lock beads onto her right ring finger, and couldn't get it off. At all. In fact, it wouldn't move, and her finger was beginning to get pink and puffy. To quote Fiona, "It DID come right off my pinky." Why stop there?

Well! This looked like a job for Captain Dish Soap! We all went into the kitchen, where Nora went into Safe Mode (a Cheerios breakfast while snugly strapped into the high chair) and Fiona got to play in icy, soapy water in the sink. I gave her a "hand massage" with dish soap. That purple bead was going nowhere.

Suddenly I was catapulted back to the day when I foolishly believed, a couple weeks after Fiona was born, that I could put my wedding ring back onto my pudgy, puffy postpartum finger. I missed it, I wanted it, I put it on, and I was sorry. Oh, so sorry. It took an emergency room visit and a new wedding band to remedy that situation, and now my mind became swimmy. I wasn't feeling so capable anymore as Fiona and I splashed in the kitchen sink. I felt giddy-- in a bad way.

After waking Ian for a quick reality check, I phoned the PHP 24-Hour Nurseline and talked to Jolene. What would be best-- ice? Elevation? More soaking in the sink? Giving up now before the swelling gets worse and Fiona gets totally spooked? Jolene thought it over, consulted some texts, and called me back with some ideas. Fortunately, the old Petroleum Jelly Trick worked, because it was our last chance. Jolene, you and the Nurseline totally rock on toast!