Monday started off like a normal day. Dropped Catie off at daycare, and Lucy at my parents’ house. Did my work stuff, went to daycare to pick up Catie, then went to my parents’ house and had dinner with them.

At some point while we were at my parents’ house, Catie went to the bathroom, and she started crying. I went to check on her, and she said it hurt when she peed. Obviously that was a major red flag, but I also know that she has a tendency to hold it for a really long time. Since she had no other symptoms (no fever, otherwise acting like her normal happy self), I wrote it off as a fluke. She’s never had a bladder infection before, so it seemed unlikely.

When we got home, I took the girls upstairs to give them a bath. Catie said she needed to pee again (red flag #2, she had just gone less than an hour before, and she normally pees maybe 3 times a day tops, because her bladder is the opposite of mine). She got on the toilet and started screaming that it hurt.

Right. Ok then. Time to go to Urgent Care!

I called my parents, they came over to take care of Lucy so I wouldn’t have to bring her along.

Unfortunately, all Urgent Care offices here close at 8 p.m., and it was 7:55 when we left the house. Change of plans: off to the ER!

The triage nurse called us back and asked a bunch of questions. Catie impressed me by being able to answer the questions about her symptoms herself. Sometimes it still stuns me that she isn’t a toddler who only I can understand.

Then we had to wait for a bed. The hospital has a separate pediatric waiting room, which is really just a little nook with some ottomans to sit on, and a TV showing Nick Junior.

I’ve never been so grateful to see Dora the Explorer in my life.

We finally got a bed, and, as Catie put it, “They let me pee in a cup!” (Gee, that sure was nice of them, wasn’t it?) Found out that yes, she does indeed have a UTI. They sent us home with a prescription for antibiotics and a list of instructions for things to be careful about from now on.

We got home after 10:30 p.m. (Again, SO THANKFUL I didn’t have to lug Lucy along with me through all of this.) I insisted that Catie had to take a bath, because, eww, ER germs. She finally crashed after 11. I crawled into bed soon afterward.

Then, of course, Lucy had me up from 4 to 6 a.m., so I basically feel like death today. (Tired, grumpy, headache-y death.) And I have a ton of work to do today, which is going to be a challenge.

But Catie is starting to feel a little better, so I’m thankful for that. And she was excited that she would have the most exciting story at Show & Tell today. So, you know, there’s that. Priorities.

The good news is that we’re halfway through 2012 and this was our first ER trip this year. Fingers crossed that it’s also the last.