Do you have something in your house where you look at it and you just KNOW that it will injure you? That it’s only a matter of time. In our house, it’s the baby gate. Mike is six feet three inches tall, and steps over the gate like it’s a no higher than a curb. I am a full foot shorter, and the baby gate has been plotting against me ever since Madeline started crawling.
Annabel figured out if she throws her body weight against the gate she can knock it over (seriously, it’s like a scene out of Jurassic Park – she’s looking for a weakness!). So, we had to secure the gate in creative ways, using foot stools and other miscellaneous heavy furniture. It’s a hassle to move the furniture, so it’s easier to step over the gate than open it. (I have no pictures, you’ll have to take my word.)
Last Friday, I was carrying Annabel back to the gated community (so much more pleasant than “baby jail”) and went to step over the fence. I didn’t step quite high enough. My right foot (specifically, my toes) got caught in the gate. My momentum kept carrying me forward, and suddenly, Annie and I were falling. The next part is a blur, as my mom instincts kicked in. I twisted and contorted my body and somehow landed on the floor with Annie laughing, completely fine. It was all a big ride for her!
Unfortunately, my ankle and shin IMMEDIATELY looked BAD. Like send-Mike-text-messages-to-come-home-from-work-bad. The whole lower front half of my leg was dark red/purple within five minutes of the fall.
You know when a bad time to go to the emergency room at a university hospital is? The Friday before Halloween. I saw all kinds of drunk injuries – AT EIGHT PM. A fraternity boy wearing a Chile flag who’d had a BEER BOTTLE BROKEN ACROSS HIS FACE. I stared at him with my mouth hanging open. All I could think was that his mom was going to be sooooo pissed.
After an exam and xray, I was finally released from the ER around 11:30ish with the diagnosis of slight ankle sprain and deep bone bruising.
Wanna see the bruises and swelling? I took these yesterday with my camera phone (so excuse the quality).
cankle!
The shin and ankle already look SO much better.
Not to be outdone, my dad decided he wanted to go to the ER the next night, and dropped a TV on the middle finger of his right hand. He needed seven stitches (gag) AND he broke a bone.
but damn if he isn’t festive with his pumpkin backdrop!
Don’t worry – the TV still works. Phew.
THEN. That same night, my cousin Leah though it would be awesome to grab a knife by the wrong end, and slashed her middle finger on her LEFT hand. She did NOT go to the ER because she knows stitches are disgusting. But the joke’s on her because her cut got infected and now she’s on antibiotics.
at least her nail polish is sparkly
I hope the rest of 2010 is medically boring! DO YOU HEAR ME MIKE THAT’S NOT A CHALLENGE!
Annie Y says:
We have the same gate. Last month it jumped out thin air and attacked me.2 broken toes.and a severely bruised foot.I feel your pain!
Katrina says:
Ouch, ouch, and ouch a third time! What’s UP with the Spohr family and all the injuries??!! Well, I think you are safe for the rest of the year…because we all know how things happen in 3’s
Veronika says:
Ouch! I fell down stairs with my baby girl once. Both child and camera (in the other hand) were oblivious and completely fine, I was scraped raw from wrist to elbow. I hope you kicked the crap out of the gate with your good foot. Not that I would ever do something like that, not me. I hope the Spohrs remain accident free for the rest of 2010!
Jenn says:
Ha ha – when I saw…”THE FINGER”, I thought it was Mike’s and that he just scratched himself but wanted to be more dramatic than your injury. SORRY MIKE!!! LMAO!!! I hate those damn gates…they really are a curse for short peoples (I’m the exact same height as you are).
I’m so relieved you didn’t get hurt more than you did since you twisted yourself (I could see you throwing your back out or something). I’m also glad Annie thought it was a blast. That little one is a dare devil! I’m surprised she isn’t walking….I mean RUNNING by now!
Keep that leg up and make Mike serve you peeled grapes on a plater with a nice, cold beer to take the ouchies away. Really….it’s the LEAST he could do…first you borned both of his daughters and now you got hurt on the job!! Hurt in the line of duty! I think you should shout out to Workmans Comp..I’m sure there will be a HUGE cheque just waiting in the mailbox for you! ha ha ha
Thinking of you!
Jenn
Rebecca says:
You need this baby gate:
http://www.cardinalgates.com/ss30a.html
Screws in (no chance Annie can knock it over). Easily unlocks to swing open for the 5’3″ set. Not so easily that Annie will have the know- how and dexterity to unlock it herself for a long time.
Heather says:
The SAME thing happened to my right leg when we had the baby cage in our house! I had to added bonus of landing on some duplo blocks. Lego block shaped bruises for the win!
Heal fast!
Chantelle @ photo mommy says:
I fell off our front porch over the summer and sprained both of my ankles. The highlight of the entire ordeal is that I got to be waited on hand and “feet” for the better part of 2 weeks! =) Hope everyone heals soon!
Mandy says:
I hear ya! We spent not just Saturday (a real night-before-Halloween-freak-show) but also Monday. 2 ER visits within 2 days of eachother, both the day before & the day after Halloween. Yep, just call me Lucky! Hope you feel better soon!
Sherri says:
I fell down the stairs with Bayli when she was 6 weeks old. I did the same as you…save the baby, sacrifice myself. OUCH. My back has never been the same. Seriously.
catherine lucas says:
See, in Europe we used pens… Baby is safe inside, and the rest of the house can move around freely without gates and other nuisances. That is, we used them when my babies were small… My oldest sat in it till he was good 1 1/2 years old… Now they call that abuse I believe…
I don’t know why present day moms torture themselves with gates and other appliances, grin… A baby pen is so much easier. Believe me… ALthough I know you won’t.
Sucks when you get to see the inside of a hospital on a regular base!!!!
Stay safe Spohr family. Shall I look for my old pen? Just askin ;o))))
Karen says:
My husband, my mother-in-law, and I were separately in the ER during the same week last January- you know, just after our 2009 copays were outdated and we rolled over into a new copay year
He fell and had a bulging disc after a fall- I diagnosed him and the MRI at the neuro’s confirmed it; the ER sent him home with a sciatica diagnosis.
I was sick while he was 800 miles away and got so badly dehydrated I couldn’t stand or breathe decently and had chest pains and my hands were curled up into fists beneath my chin. Hello 911 and ambulance bill because we didn’t yet know anyone in our neighborhood who could have driven me.
My mother-in-law fell on ice outside of a restaurant and broke her wrist.
Oi!
Your leg looks like it just hurts and screamed immediately for ice!
I hope all those big owie boo boos heal up soon and heal up well!
And since the rule of 3’s is usually in effect, your crew should be good for a while Consider your ‘turn’ with the personal cloud well-taken!
Mary Ann says:
Ouch! I sprained my knee, insert embarassing mouse story here, in June and it’s still healing. Rest Ice Compression Elevation – feel better soon. Ice Cream always helps too.
Penny says:
I too, have fallen over a gate with my child and fortunately we were both saved from serious injury. Now I set her on the other side and then go over myself. We have purchased good swinging gates, but purchasing and installing are two totally different things…
DrLori71 says:
Gated community…that’s so funny because we always called our giant 6 sided baby gate (or baby pen) baby jail. First kid loved to be in baby jail. Second kid? Not so much. He must of had a good lawyer because he got early release from baby jail & it wasn’t due to good behavior.
I hope everyone recovers from their injuries soon!
Eric's Mommy says:
OUCH, OUCH, OUCH!!
We had a retractable baby gate for Eric. The good thing was it was made out of flexible plastic and you could pull it out and attach it to a bracket that was fastened to the other side of the entryway. My Husband is also about 6’3″ and I am a foot shorter and it was hard for me to step over, but since it was flexible it was a little easier because the top would give a little. I never got hurt but there were a few close calls.
Lamb says:
Oh dear! I don’t know what your family sees in injuring themselves right now, but I’m here to tell everyone to knock it off
J+1 says:
Ow! Feel better.
I am terrified of falling with the baby. I’ve got all kinds of stairs and I go up and down them like a little old lady. I haven’t had to worry about baby gates yet, but now I’m paranoid…
Tami says:
Im sorry for all of you that got boo”s , boo”s!!
I had a fall with our gate and fell face first brusing my arm and leg.. It hurt for along time. I hope your leg heal fast. Annie is so cute and nothing is going to stop her!! lol
Lisa says:
That was quite a weekend for you guys and the ER!!
Your ankle looks so painful. I hate baby gates, they were designed for the sole purpose of inflicting pain on adults, I”m convinced of it.
Stacey says:
Sorry to hear about all of those accidents! I understand 2010 SUCKING… April of this year I fell down our basement stairs and bruised the crap out of my back. It was the worst. pain. ever. Went to the ER… a few days later I lost feeling in my limbs and was getting a shortness of breath. Went back to the ER and found out I was allergic to the damn muscle relaxers. At the end of August I had an emergency appendectomy…. came home and found out I was allergic to the hospital detergent (gown/sheets)… why not, right? Now they think I have a hernia from the lack of muscle in my lower abdomen.
I’m done people!
Megan says:
I swear, baby gates are so dangerous! I just had to get this one for my parents house because my 75 year old Dad was climbing over the gate in their house (it is to contain their dog, not my Dad). I’m on a crusade. Everyone needs a walk through gate! We love this one and I especially love it because it opens with one hand and it is tall enough to discourage even very tall people from stepping over it. http://www.amazon.com/Summer-Infant-Secure-Extra-Walk-Thru/dp/B0000DEW91
Kelly says:
I had bunion surgery when Mea was about 18 months old. I tried stepping over the baby gate with my surgical boot on, lost my balance, and somehow pulled a muscle in my armpit. It hurt worse then my foot did for the remaining 3 weeks I was off work, with the percocet.
Hope you are back to jumping baby gates again soon!
Four Gambel Girls and a guy - documenting the adventures we call life says:
Nothing like a family reunion at the emergency room!
Rebecca says:
Yea, PETA is likely to come and throw blood on me but we had a baby gate to keep the dogs away from the kids, but when Joey was something like 3 or 4 weeks old, I told my husband that the baby gates have to go, so he was told to either get rid of the dog that bites or I was going to leave with the kids. He had the biting dog put down a couple of days later. BUT, I had almost fallen (fell against the oven, it was off) while holding the newborn while trying to climb over the gate and the biting dog was getting old and senile.
Elizabeth says:
Ouch!! Sounds like the time my Aunt, me & My mom all made an appearance in the ER in one week. They started to get to know my dad by name. Hope you feel better soon!!
Joy says:
Cankle!
Stitches gross me out also. Back in April we had one of those days-hubs went to help his farmer friend with cows, this ended no sooner than it began because on the first cow the farmer slipped with his scalpel and it met hubs hand! he called me and simply said I need to know where I can get stitches on a Sunday! after he told me what happened I said don’t go to the ER that will cost to much money. He went to a walk in place they stitched him up he came home and showed me EWW! I left a little later that day & went to the grocery store and while waiting to turn back into my neighborhood I was rear ended! Guess where we ended up that day after all?
Marti from Michigan says:
MAJOR OUCH!!! I cut my thumb once on one of those apple corer/slicer things. No health insurance, I did not want to go to the ER. That thing just kept bleeding, and I fought the bleeding with mega wrapping it in tissues, napkins, plastic, whatever would stop it. Finally after about 8 hours of consistent oozing, it finally stopped bleeding! I probably did need stitches, but no way am I going to pay hundreds of dollars out of my pocket for my own dumbness.
You can put ice packs and then heat, back and forth like that, on the foot/leg area Heather, it’s supposed to help break up the bruising, and help your sprain to heal.
When I was a little kid (centuries ago, lol), my parents had one of those wooden baby gates that hooked to either side of the door, NONE of us kids ever got through that thing or even over it. Now that thing truly was baby jail,
Hope you feel better – ALL of you!!!
michael says:
I did the exact same thing when my son was 1. Except I was carrying a ceramic or glass dog bowl filled with water at the time. So not only did I bruise myself completely, but the bowl shattered in my hands, ripping the skin off my fingers.
Did I mention we had just got back from vacation and I had left the AC off in a 100* heat wave so my son was just sitting in the middle of a room in a diaper while I’m bleeding everywhere?
So great. The pictures look good though and I have some cool scars to show for it.
Kristin says:
I’m sorry the baby gate took you out. Our are evil as well. Mine has injured or maimed everyone in the house at least twice. My baby gate injuries are my fault and caused by my own stupidity. But still I know they plot.
Cheryl says:
My husband did that as well, tripped holding our 1 yr old while stepping over the gate, only he landed full force on one knee. Cost us 2200.00 for a knee surgery…..
on the plus side, little guy was fine.
Jayme says:
We have the same issues with the gates- my husband just steps over and I need to take a running leap. Plus the babies learned if they shake them hard enough they’ll come loose.
Wicked SteppMom says:
If the ER docs have not already suggested this, please get follow-up xrays with either your family doc, or preferably an orthopedic tomorrow or sometime next week. The DAY I got the cast off of my right hand/wrist (2 months!), I stepped off of a curb in a parking lot sorta’ funky & broke my foot in 2 places. I went to the ER immediately due to the swelling, discoloration & pain, but they were unable to see any breaks & diagnosed it as an ankle sprain and bone bruise. Followed up w/the orthopedic 3 days later, after the swelling had gone down a little bit & he found the 1st break…when I was still having significant pain a week after that, he did another xray & found the 2nd break. He said there are lots of little bones in the foot & often if the swelling is significant, breaks don’t appear immediately on xray. Hope you heal quickly!!
cindy w says:
Well, bad stuff is supposed to happen in three’s, right? So you should be fine from here on out. Let’s hope so, anyway! Good grief!
Glenda says:
O.M.G… Heather be careful… love the “gated community for Annie” lol heal soon!
Kristin says:
That sounds like a scenario from my house. Maybe I’ll have to tell my story of gracefulness soon.
Lisa says:
Oh no!! That looks painful!! You made me LOL with all the injuries (not because everyone was hurt.. just the coincidence!).. Me and my husband spent the day at the Dr. Saturday because he decided to cut his hand between his thumb and index finger carving the kid’s pumpkin! He did it up good even cutting into a vein.. Blood was everywhere!! Stitches and pain meds later he was good as new! I’m glad Annie was OK (and amused!!)
Janette says:
Oh No, It sounds like a disaster when everyone in the family is getting hurt. I hope you will all get better and be back in full health.
Ella says:
Halloween gave me an eye infection.
Its gross.
Marnie * says:
This whole post is just OUCH. I hope you ALL feel better soon.
max says:
Omg I hope you’re ok those bruises look nasty
shelley says:
i gotta tell you, i did the same thing with the baby gate. my toes didn’t get caught, my foot did and there was a toy on the other side. one of those collapsed for sitters and crawlers, and pops up to an a-frame for walkers in training. i killed it. dead. my bruises extended up farther than yours, or you spared us the pics LOL, and on both legs. i did not, however, require a trip to the hospital. just an immediate double dose of ibuprofen and a few days of not being ABLE to step over the damn gate.
not only do you win the prize for the best “baby gate hopping failure” but i think your whole family should win the “best timing to wound yourself” award
i hope you all feel better soon and that the trips to the er are all done.
Kay says:
When I was reading that, I realized you did the exact same thing my mom did once, except you’re lucky (yes, I said it, but you’ll soon understand why) that you sprained only your ankle.
When I was 3, we lived in the first story of a double story house, and our landlord livd upstairs. My mom and dad were bringing in groceries, and my mom had me in her arms along with some groceries. The landlord had work done the week before, but one of the workers was careless and cracked the sidewalk. My mom tripped on it, and did the same turning motion you did, only to actually damage the C3, C4, and C5 vertebrate. She has lifelong spinal damage now.
I’m glad you and Annie are alright, and feel better soon!
Lara says:
This is further proof that being a Mom mean you wear a Superhero cape! “Able to fall remarkably gracefully (or not!) over a baby gate without harming a single hair on my child’s head!”
Baby gates are the nemesis of my shorter friends, as this is one of the few times I am happy to be a tall woman! 5’10” baby and able to jump a baby gate in a single bound!
Heal quickly! That looks painful!
jess says:
I’m 5’8″ and tripped over the baby gate. I may just be clumsy, lol!
Tricia says:
You were in the emergency room over the weekend, too? SO WAS I! Well, it wasn’t for me, but for my son. So that’s awesome. He’d been running this rogue fever for almost a week, and I was starting to get really scared (especially because it was REALLY HIGH Saturday night, and his hands and feet were like ice cubes. Of course, I Google this, and it says GO NOW YOUR CHILD HAS SEPTICEMIA OR MENINGITIS AND AREN’T YOU IN THE CAR YET??). Anyway, ends up being viral which I had thought it was; but I gotta tell ya, hospitals on the eve of Halloween are interesting places. As in, weird and scary and not because of the sweet costumes.
I hope your cankle gets better soon! And your family needs to start wearing gloves or faux finger covers or something….fingers in your family are looking for trouble.
Jill says:
Was your cousin trying to be your dad for halloween?
Jess says:
Good lord Heather! I’m glad nothing was broken! I did that one time when babysitting, twisted my body to protect the baby and deeply bruised my tailbone. Had to sit on a pillow for a week.
Annie probably thought that was the best ride ever.
becZhang says:
Ouch! I hope everyone is feeling better soon. I cut my hand on a glass once while washing dishes and needed stitches. I was only slightly embarassed to tell that story at the ER.
Bonna says:
I too fell carrying my daughter when she was about nine months old. I figured I would work on our garden in the front yard and take her with me. I carried my 16 pounder, her carriage, a flower pot and something else that escapes me at the moment. Took one step down, twisted my ankle and landed flat on my back, on concrete. She just looked at me and smiled. To this day I am not exactly sure how that happened. Fortunately my neighbor was able to assist me and I wobbled back into the house. Nothing serious – but the funny thing is, I felt no embarrassment whatsoever. I was just happy that I landed on my back and not on HER head.
Rumour Miller says:
If I did that over my baby gate, I’d be falling down a flight of stairs to my basement.
I’m so glad that Annie thought it was fun and that you suffered no broken bones… but stop doing that! haha
Jannette says:
I’ve been wanting to suggest that you change the way you use the baby gate. How about using it to prevent Annie from getting into the electronics and other dangers and letting her have free run of the house. You wouldn’t have to step over it as often and Annie wouldn’t try “as much” to knock it over.
I have a two year old who does not walk anywhere. It is always run run run while she giggles and screams. So, my advice may not be the best.
Good luck. It looks like she will keep you on your toes for awhile.
Ellie says:
I crashed and burned over a baby gate when I was extremely pregnant with my younger son. I still remember the moment of pure “oh, CRAP!!!” when I realized I was going down. I hope your ankle is healing well.
Becky says:
We have the same gates that we used as a pen until my son was old enough to want to wander the house. Now they are taken apart and used in various places to block of parts of the house we don’t want him in. He’s 2 and beats them like Annie does…looking for a weak spot. They’re strapped to furniture and his play fort. Unfortunately, Daddy, Mommy and Pappy have all gotten hung up on the way over and taken a spill. But just this week my son took the worst fall. He stood on something and went over it. My husband was making my son a snack in the kitchen and heard him hit the ground. He turned around and Eric was on his face with his arms behind him and his feet still hung up on the gate. We still have to use the gates but now we have to make sure there’s nothing he can use to scale it. Sorry about the rash of accidents.
TracyKM says:
I used to hurdle over the gate too (never with the baby), until I was diagnosed with arthritis in my SI joints. Yeah, I have arthritis in my BUTT.
Now we have gates that screw to the wall and you can open them one handed. I would never recommend a pressure mount gate to any parent. I hope you heal quickly—arnica gel is great for bruising.
It’s funny how the things that are supposed to keep baby safe often cause their parent to get injured
Freckle on the Nose of Life's Complexion says:
I was just looking at the sharp metal corners of my bed frame yesterday, thinking, “It’s only a matter of time before you cause me bodily harm.”
Hope you and your fam feel better pronto!