Bella, Hairbows and X-Rays- Oh my!

I love having a girl. And I love putting itty bitty bows in her hair. It's never been an issue until today. Bella, Ian and I had just gotten home from dropping Logan off at school. I took off her coat and put her on the floor for a second while I took my coat off. Then I put her in the playpen so I could get the dishes done (the sink was full!). When I came back to her, I noticed that her hairbow was gone. I didn't see it in or around the playpen but it didn't bother me because I figured it was around somewhere. I fed her some cheerios and babyfood (apricots, applesauce and yogurt concoction) and she seemed fine. I even nursed her a bit afterwards.

When I went to search for the hairbow it was no where to be found. I dumped every toy out, pulled the padding from the playpen bottom, flipped over the pen and searched every crevice more than once. I also looked more thoroughly around the area and couldn't find it. Her shirt was too loose for it to get stuck there and I changed her diaper and it wasn't in her pants or diaper. The only logical thing I could come up with is that she swallowed it somehow. It's not a huge barrette- maybe 1 1/4" long and the bow was soft but it was long enough that it could have gotten stuck. They were also worried since it was metal and could corrode.

So I placed a call to our pediatrician's office and talked to the triage nurse who said she'd have to talk to the on call Dr. and call me back. When she did call back, she said to take her to the Community Diagnostic Center and have her x-rayed. If I noticed her coughing or having abdominal pain though, I'd need to take her to the E.R. So right after picking up Logan we headed straight the the CDC to wait. The Dr had already faxed over the *prescription* to have the x-rays done and we had to only wait 30 minutes or so. The boys hung out with a technician in a room right across the hall since they couldn't be in the same room with us. I got to wear a lovely lead apron/vest thingy and hold her still and straight while they took the picture. It only lasted a minute and she was perfect thru it. I was more stressed about the wait in the waiting room with two bored boys (I didn't have time to bring anything or prepare) who were acting up than I was with Bella swallowing some foreign object.

Got everyone home, waited another 15-20 minutes before calling the ped's office again to get the results (they were faxed over) and they said that it wasn't stuck in the esophagus rings which is what they look for so I need to keep checking her poop (oh fun, fun!) or she didn't swallow it. Question remains- if she didn't swallow it, where the HELL is it?!

Oh and poor dh was stressing so much over this. He loves his kids to no end. He told me he was going to burn all the rest of her tiny hairbows. LOL I just know better now and will not leave her alone with a bitty hairbow again.