Our Little Piggy Bank

So today Charlotte swallowed a coin, at least based on the evidence. I'm totally torn between finding the situation hilarious and horrifying.

I was packing my toiletries bag in the bathroom while Charlotte played chased Maddie with my sarong just out of sight in the bedroom. Then I heard her kind of gagging, so I stepped out in a slight panic. Her eyes big, she had her finger in her mouth and was crying a little. I asked her what was wrong, but she just kept shoving her fingers to the back of her mouth. Finally I coaxed out of her, "coin, coin" followed by more whiny-crying.

"Charlotte, did you swallow a coin?"

Her emphatic response was, "Coin, coin!" and more shoving of her fingers into the back of her mouth as she tried to retrieve the coin. Followed by, "Where go?"

This went on for a while as I reminded her that we DO NOT put coins in our mouth. Then I told her she isn't a piggy bank. She mostly seemed pretty upset that I couldn't get the coin back! That definitely had me tickled.

Of course the mom in me rushed to the telephone to catch the pediatrician before she left the office at 5 (giving me 10 minutes, I hoped, to catch her!) . She's out this week, apparently, but the other pedi at her office was very helpful. He said that a quarter would be bothering her somewhere on the way down and she probably wouldn't be running around happily (as she was by this point). He said to take her to the emergency room tonight if she started acting like something was wrong, and gave us the all clear to travel to Sea World tomorrow as planned.

The bad news? We have to FIND this coin on it's way out or get an x-ray to make sure it's actually passed.

Good times at Sea World, oh yeah.

The part where she put something into her mouth that she shouldn't have AND swallowed it while she was out of my sight totally freaks me out. Thank God it wasn't a quarter that she probably would have choked on. What else is hiding under the couch or somewhere she can reach that I haven't noticed that she could choke on? What if she'd been in the other room where I couldn't hear her as well? Right now I can easily check on her whenever need be, but what will I do when I have a fussy newborn to tend to? I think we're going to have to add a prayer to her Guardian Angel every night!