LittleGirl sent us racing for the Poison Control number this morning.
I got up early this morning, very sleepy after a long grueling week. We had dinner with my in-laws last night, so we had been out late the night before and my bag was full of evening-out-with-the-kids type stuff. Being home with a sick child most of the week while Scott was putting in 14-hour days has rendered us both exhausted. In my half-asleep stupor, I emptied the bag on a table in the dining room and started loading it with the files I needed for a morning at the office.
Scott pulled in from his Friday men's breakfast, I headed out, and all seemed well. I'd gotten Elli dressed and packed for school, Sam was getting dressed, and all instructions were clear.
Then, about 9:05am, Scott called. I knew that wasn't a good sign -- he was supposed to be loading kids in the van to drop Sam off at preschool at that moment.
He said, "I just found Little Girl chowing down on melatonin tablets. She got them off the dining room table. She's got quite a few dissolved and stuck to her face. Any idea how bad that is for her?"
My heart sunk. This was my fault. Melatonin was one of the items I removed from my bag and plopped on the middle of that table in the dining room this morning. It's a hormone that occurs naturally in our bodies and is connected at least partly with our sleep cycle. Elli takes a synthetic supplement to help her sleep while she weans off a seizure medication that has wreaked havoc on her sleep cycle for the past 3 years. It's working well for her, much to our relief (a child with a disrupted sleep cycle = a parent with a disrupted sleep cycle... if not an entire family!).
My coworkers pulled up the Poison Control number (I should have it memorized by now since this is the fifth time we've had to call -- it's 1-800-222-1222) and I gave it to Scott so he could call. Again. They're getting quite a file on us!
He told me later that Big Boy insisted Little Girl had only eaten one tablet. They guessed that at the most she had ingested 5 tablets (or 5 milligrams), which wasn't enough to cause anything more than sleepiness. They told us to call a doctor if she got too sleepy to rouse easily.
She was extra cranky all morning, and took an early nap. This could also be from the late night and exciting evening at an indoor playground last night.
So she is right as rain... til the next time. This girl cuts us NO slack.
