The Truth of a Mother's Intuition: Our First Broken Bone

To say this past weekend was a normal one for us would be an understatement. We had a milestone - if you want to call it that - K.C. has a broken arm. My poor, baby boy.

The boys weren't home Thursday night and K.C. had a fall, as all kids do, playing on the monkey bars. On Friday, my mom, my sister, and I had plans to take them to the zoo, EdVenture, and the museum in Columbia to see the dinosaur exhibit. When I went to pick them up early Friday morning, I just knew.

That mother's intuition thing that you hear about is true. I knew when I saw his face, his eyes, and looked at his precious, swollen little arm, that it was broken. I got in the car and told my sister we weren't going. A minute later, he tells me in a little whimper that his arm hurts so bad and he thinks we should just stay home and play all day (and this from a boy who loves to go to the zoo and was so excited).

I went by my inlaws for my FIL to look at it and he reaffirmed what I thought. It was broken.

That began almost a full day at the doctor. We went to urgent care as our pediatrician's office told me they'd only send me to urgent care or the ER for an x-ray. After what felt like a few hours of waiting and an x-ray, we found out that both bones in his arm are broken. Thankfully, it's a good break.


Oddly enough, orthopedists in our town seem to take Friday afternoon off, so we left urgent care with a prescription for a brace.

On the way to pick up the brace, I talked with K.C. about what he was going to be getting, how it would work, and why he had to get it. I had one of these myself when I wasn't much older than him and wanted to reassure him that it was going to be ok. He's our thinker and I could already see the fear of uncertainty surfacing in his eyes.

He was great when we made it to get the brace, but as soon as the man came in to talk about it, the tears started. He worked himself up and couldn't calm down. It breaks my heart. By the time the man had returned with two options, he was sitting in my lap, crying, and just kicking out of fear. I have no doubt it was uncomfortable when he first got the brace, but I think the fear of the unknown is what scared him the most.

Once we made it to the car, I told myself I wasn't going to say anything and I'd just let him cry it out. It was that intuition thing creeping back in. He'll calm down. I knew he would.

He cried for a few minutes and I calmly said that I thought we needed to pray and ask God to help him not hurt. We try to point the boys to the Lord constantly. We said a quick prayer and I turned up the music really loud. "Power", his favorite song from VBS, happened to be the song the CD was on in my car. He slowly started calming down and in a minute, he was laughing and excited about showing his brace off to Kevin and Kaden.

Meanwhile, my mom and sister were with Kaden who was scared K.C.'s arm was actually broken off. I called him to reassure him his arm was in tact and we made some plans to have Kaden/Anna time. Poor baby still wanted to go to the zoo.

We made it home sometime after 2. I got K.C. situated inside with his arm elevated and Magic School Bus on TV. He requested pepperoni pizza with "those green peppers in the boxes" (Papa Johns), so my mom stayed with him and Kaden, my sister, and I went to pick up the pizza.


On the way, we dropped off the boys' book bags to be embroidered. They picked out new LL Bean bags. I can't wrap my mind around the fact that Kaden is old enough for an actual book bag and K.C. will be in second grade!

When we got home, K.C. ate half of the pizza and we played Legos. I babied him and I think he really enjoyed it!

That night, my FIL cooked dinner. We enjoyed getting to visit with them and the boys had fun playing with their cousins who were over as well.

K.C. was awesome letting me take the brace off for him to shower and then let us ice it each nice. He did great taking medicine, too.



Saturday morning, he woke up as happy as could be. We spent literally the whole day home until about 5. We ran out to pick up our niece's birthday gifts and then met my family for dinner. Kaden fell asleep in the car, so I stayed with him at one stop. He melts my heart.



We had a great Sunday, too. K.C. got to show his brace off to his friends at church and Kaden asked for prayer for his brother in Sunday School. These little God moments make my heart smile. I hope the boys will always go to God for everything and that we show them in little things each day how to turn to God for anything.



We celebrated our sweet niece's fourth birthday Sunday afternoon and K.C. even got to swim at the birthday party. Our neighbor is a nurse practitioner and she told me, after seeing the x-ray, that it was safe for him to swim with an Ace bandage wrapped around his arm and waterproof tape over that. He did great!

He got his orange cast yesterday.




But don't even think about signing it. He doesn't want it to get dirty!

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