Early Childhood Trauma

I'll just get right to it.

We were at the park today - as we are at least 3-4 times per week. It was lunchtime, and I had 5 kids with me. My three, and the two kids that I take care of a couple of times per week. The big kids finished eating their picnic lunches and went off to play. I was going to make a phone call from my cell, when I noticed a yellow jacket flying around. Jack was in his stroller right next to me. I got up to move to another spot because I just had a feeling the bee wasn't going to leave us alone. Once PB&J is in the air, it's all over. I sort of jerked the stroller out of the way as I got up to move our stuff, and Jack started crying hysterically. Weird, I thought. I figured he must have bitten his tongue. I mean what else would make him start crying so badly, so quickly? I gave him a drink of water from his sippy cup. At first he took a small drink, but then started waving his arms and shaking his head and SCREAMING/CRYING. As I took the sippy cup away, I saw something in his mouth.

It was the yellow jacket. The little jerk had flown into my baby's MOUTH and stung him.

And then I died. OH.MY.GOD. Obviously, the first thing I did was reach in and get it out of there. It was dead. And Jack was hysterical. I was "OHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGOD" -ing as I was taking him out of his stroller. More often than not, my friend and her kids meet me at the park, but not today. So I was totally alone. All of my attention was on my baby. The other four could have been smoking cigarettes on the swings for all I knew. Jack took comfort in an open water bottle, but was clearly uncomfortable and moving his tongue around in an unnatural way. Still crying. A lot. He rarely cries...so it was breaking my heart to see him in so much pain. I didn't have any Tylenol with me. Dammit. Mental note - carry baby Tylenol in the diaper bag. After 15 minutes went by, and Jack was still breathing normally, I figured we were in the clear as far as a bee allergy was concerned. I left a message with our pediatrician....knowing what he would say. Try to get the stinger out. Right. Not an easy task when we're talking about a sting on the tongue of an almost 10 month old baby. I know the yellow jacket got him on the tongue because while he was crying, I could see a little red sting mark.

The kids were very understanding about having to leave the park early so that we could get Jack home. I gave him some Tylenol and a Popsicle cut up into bite size pieces. He loves ice chips anyway, so I figured if anyone deserved a Popsicle - it was him. Plus...I'm thinking the cold treat felt good on his tongue. He didn't seem truly better until about 3 hours later.

Now I just have to get the horrible vision out of my head.....my crying baby with a bee in his mouth.