Stitches

I think I always knew this was bound to happen, but I never really prepared myself for what I would do IF it happened.  Today Evie fell down the stairs, which resulted in 3 stitches in her forehead.  She handled it like a champ, but unfortunately her mama was a disaster.

This morning I had my niece, Maia, here and I was getting ready to head out to bring her and Belle to school.  I ran upstairs thinking that Belle, Maia, and Evie were on their way down to the basement.  Once I was up there I heard the loudest bump-bump-bump ever.  It is one of those moments as a parent where you wait to hear the scream afterwards.  At first I heard nothing, and then Belle was screaming, "EVIE!  EVIE!"  I knew it was bad.

I ran downstairs as fast as I could and as I approached the top of the basement stairs I had that sick feeling in my stomach of what I was actually going to see.  At first, it was just Evie laying on the floor. It didn't look like any limbs were out of place, and she was moving.  Once I picked her up I realized we were headed to the doctor for some stitches.  The blood.  Holy moly-the blood.  I am not a blood person.  I am not a gash in the head person.  I picked her up and saw so much blood dripping all over her face, but couldn't quite figure out where it was coming from.  Her lip was fine.  Her nose looked fine.  I dreaded to move her hair to look at her head because I knew any cut creating that much blood was going to be big.

I ran upstairs with her while Belle and Maia followed.  I was scared.  I laid Evie down and the only thing I could think of was "what the heck am I supposed to do?!?!?!"  I grabbed my phone, but for some reason it was SO slow it took me at least a minute or two before anything would come up on the scream.  During this time I was shaking it, banging it on the floor, and cussing at it.  Evie is bleeding from the head and my phone decides to take its sweet time to pull up a phone number.  It probably didn't help that my hand was shaking so bad that I could barely see the screen.

Once I made a couple of phone calls, the kids were thrown in the car.  At one point Maia said, "Aunt Betsy, what is that big black thing on Evie's head?" "Um....that would be a big owie (or awful bleeding gash), Maia."  Ha!  I forgot to mention that while the kids were getting in the car Belle felt it was a great time to come to me screaming that she hurt her finger.  Didn't go over so well for her.

Cricket took the kids and I headed to the doctor.  I walked in knowing Evie and I looked like we had just endured a battle.  Her face still had blood all over it because I didn't take time to wipe it off, and I had blood all over my shirt and chest.  Rosie and Cheryl at the front desk of my doctor office know my kids and I well and they just looked at me and asked how we were.  I started to cry, which made Rosie cry.  Evie's doc came out to us and I felt so much more calm.  Finally, someone who knew how to handle this situation.

Evie laid on me as they cleaned her up, and they mentioned that it was pretty deep.  Evie was a champ during all this and literally didn't make a move.  Once they needed to give her the shot of anesthetic, Paul walked in.  I was instantly relieved, because I was really debating if I was going to be able to handle holding her during the shot and stitches.  Paul grabbed her and I walked out for a bit to get her pacifier, and returned to her screaming and bleeding all over again.  Once they started the stitches she didn't make a move and sat perfectly (this is when I took the time to take some pics to document).

As I mentioned, I am not a blood person, let alone seeing it all over my 17 month old daughter.  I had a major panic moment today and I had a hard time keeping it together.  I realize that Evie was going to be just fine, but in the moment I felt at a loss for how to help her.  I couldn't gather my thoughts enough to think forward to the next step.  I wish I could say I was totally cool, calm, and collected, but I wasn't.

Now, I know no one would expect me to have it all together, but I wish I could say that in an emergency I would.  If any of my kids needs stitches again, I will be all set :-)  However, it has gotten me thinking about hypothetical emergency situations that could come up and if I would be ready for them.  Thank the Lord my Evie was okay and is clearly much more resilient than her mother (she takes after Paul for sure).

Overall, if it wasn't for my family, EVERYONE in my doctor's office, and my amazing husband, I may not have held it together at all!

I am thankful Ev is okay, but I am even MORE thrilled that she decided to do this AFTER she had health insurance :-)  

JUST got her stitches.  Not so thrilled.

Totally didn't act like anything happened to her today.  If it wasn't for the band-aid you would never know.