I'm visiting family out of state. My sister was playing with Miriam one the trampoline. She was standing holding Miriam's hands. She sat down (very carefully, because she knew Miriam hadn't been on the tramp before) and Miriam kind of twisted and fell b/c of the residual bouncing. She started crying really hard, so my sister brought her back to me. She calmed down pretty quickly, but wouldn't put any pressure on her leg, so we figured she'd twisted it or sprained it somewhere. We held her a lot and put her to bed with a dose of tylenol. This morning she still wouldn't let us move it, so we took her to the ER.

When the doctor came and told us it was a break he said "if she were only 4 months old, we'd assume this was abuse. I don't want to make any accusations, but something more happened than what you described. The only way a bone would break that easily is if there were cancer in the leg, and everything looks fine in that area."

I'm just so upset. I'm upset that my baby, who just started walking about 6 weeks ago won't be able to walk for 4-6 weeks. I'm upset that my family who doesn't get to see her too often, won't get to see how cute she is as she toddles around. I'm upset that I wasn't with her when it happened so I could tell what I saw.

The thing is, my sister would *never* hurt Miriam. Honestly--would I have left Miriam with her even for 5 minutes if I thought she was capable of that? AND, when I told the doctor that Janelle would be coming into the hospital to see Miriam if he wanted to talk with her, he didn't seem interested AT ALL. Now, could my sister have missed something as she was sitting down? Could she have looked away and missed something? Absolutely. That's why I hate that I wasn't there.

My sister feels awful. She was crying today when she got to the hospital and we told her it was broken. We went to Old Navy after the ER to find some pants that will fit over the cast. All Miriam had to do was say "dog" while pointing to a stuffed animal and she got herself a new toy from my sister. My mom says that if we want tuition for Miriam's college, we've got it made. My dad says Miriam will be able to use this for YEARS ("Aunt Janelle, remember how you broke my leg? I saw this great shirt I really want..."). Of course, Janelle really does feel badly; I just wish she could accept that it was an accident--any of us could have been with her when it happened.

Chris said the doctor was being an ass and trying to scare us. They didn't take the address or phone number of where we're staying, so they obviously aren't too concerned. In fact, they didn't even get MY name.

In the past I thought people were exaggerating when they said trampolines are dangerous, now I understand. It was a freak accident, though...I mean my parents have had their tramp since I was 10-12 and the only person who ever hurt himself was my dad--and that was because he was showing off ("let
me show you guys how to do a real flip").

My poor baby! She's in a good mood, though and has been for most of the day. It's like she just forgets she has two legs. She kicks and plays with the other leg and just ignores the hurt one.