Thursday night, Nicholas had his first friend sleepover. Well, that isn't entirely true, his friend Benjamin and his big brother Steven, spent two weeks with us in November when their mom had to fly to Australia for her Dad's funeral. But this was the first time it was planned between the kids first. Till-Mattis, whom he has known since Kindergarten, came just before dinner and stayed until just before dinner on Friday. He is a very nice boy who plays well with all the kids, so it was fun to have him here.
On Friday morning, we met up with some friends from church and went to the animal park near our house. The kids had the most fun playing on the two playgrounds, and Alexandra was again a perfect baby, contentedly sitting in her stroller the entire time we were there. Many of the animals were hiding, but we did see both bears (although they were sleeping and rather boring), many wolves, and tons of deer. It is a large enclosure park, rather than a zoo with cages, kind of like the Wild Animal Park in San Diego, just on a much smaller scale. It is filled with indigenous animals, and costs only five Swiss francs for parking. What a great way to spend the morning, or an afternoon!
Saturday we had planned to just stay home and relax. I was finally going to finish putting up all my new organizational stuff I bought at IKEA on Wednesday, and the kids were looking forward to just hanging out at home. Chris and Nick started off playing Supreme Commander with each other, each on a separate computer, when all of a sudden Nick stopped playing and went to lay down on the couch. He was clutching his side and moaning about how much it hurt. After an hour of no relief at all, even when we gave him a hot pad, and him saying that it even hurt to move, we decided it would be best if I took him to the emergency room. The hospital is just down the hill from us, and is usually not too busy. Chris had to carry him down the stairs and into the car, because it hurt so bad he couldn't even stand up. And of course, Chris has by now Googled abdominal pain and has quite a list running of all these horrible things it could be. I was also pretty worried, since Nick was actually crying from the pain, which isn't normal for him. He can usually withstand quite a bit of pain, before sobbing with real tears like that.
When we got to the hospital, I left him in the car while I went to pay for the parking :( Then I carried him into the reception area. It was kind of funny, because he is getting so tall, his feet were only about 3 inches from the ground. I really am much too short for that kind of thing. It was a super slow day, so they were able to see him right away. Both doctors and the nurse were very kind to Nicholas and did everything they could to find out what was wrong, and how they could help him. He didn't like getting his blood taken, and closed his eyes the whole time, just like his father. They even brought him a blanket straight from the warming oven which I think was his favorite part. At one point, he needed to go potty, so I wheeled him down the hall in a wheelchair, which was also kind of fun for him. Well, as much fun as you can have when you are in terrible pain.
The blood samples they took showed no signs of infection which ruled out appendicitis, it wasn't a bowel obstruction, and he hadn't fallen or injured himself lately. They finally decided that it was just some digestive muscles cramping up, which can happen occasionally, and gave him a muscle relaxant/pain pill. Well, it wasn't a pill, it was a suppository, and they didn't give it to him, they handed me a rubber glove and I gave it to him. Although, I think he appreciated that gesture on their part. The suppository worked in that it was so uncomfortable, and he hated it so much, that he completely forgot all about the pain in his side. I joked with him, that that was their plan all along. Eventually, it really did start to relieve the pain, and after about 20 minutes he was able to sit up without pain, then get up and walk around without pain, so they let us go home. We were told to come back if the pain returned, or if he got a fever, but so far, he has been fine. In fact, he is getting a little tired of me asking him if he still hurts anywhere.
I did receive permission from the injured party himself to report all this to you, in case any of you were wondering, but no, I didn't go so far as to bring a camera and take pictures. I'm not that much of a scrapbooker, after all. haha