Davis and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day...

Well I think we are offically in the throws of parenthood. We have survived our first trip to the ER! Last night we were about to put Davis to bed and I was on my way to pick him up when he was toddeling around and fell! Though I was only a few steps away I wasn't looking down and didn't see exactly what happened. It appears that in Davis' sleepy state he just tripped (gracefulness -or lack thereof- runs in our family). He landed face down on our tile floor in the kitchen. Although I knew it was a hard fall I didn't think it was anything that a little cuddling wouldn't cure. Unfortunatly, I was very, very wrong. I scoped Davis up and his adorable face was COVERED in blood. I quickly said "Matt" only for him to be right behind me saying "I'm right here". We looked down and there were pools of blood on the floor and Davis was screaming! Matt grabbed a handful of paper towels and we tried to apply pressure to our squirming, screaming son! We went through sever wads of papertowels soaking each handful! After a few minutes we were able to get it to stop bleeding but Matt got a good look at it and determined we need to head to the ER. I had always heard that head wounds bleed a lot so I wasn't sure if we were overreacting or not- but we figured better to error on the side of caution. By this time, Davis was calmed down so we grabbed a few items (diaper bag, a few books to keep him entertained, etc...) and got in the car.

We first went to an doc-in-the-box type place by our house just to see if the nurse there could tell us if she thought it would need stiches. One look and she quickly confirmed that we should continue to head to the ER. All in all we, our experience at the pediatric ER took a total of 3 hours and was a pleasant experience (considering the circumstances). People were friendly and fortunatly nothing gruesome was going on! Davis was in a super mood as we waited in the waiting room, went through triage, and waited for the doctor. In triage they cleaned his wound up and I think it was at that time that I realized you could actually see his skull! I was increadiably thankful we were there!

A few pictures after Triage taken from my cell phone camera...

A few minutes later we moved to a curtained room and saw a doctor shortly thereafter. He looked at the wound and said that indeed you can see his skull and becuase it was so deep- stiches would be necessary. Needless to say, I think my stomach flipped we he confirmed our suspecions. I had really been hoping and praying "glue" or butterfly strips could be used- but that wasn't in the cards for us that night! So the nurse brought in a papose board that we put Davis on and we swaddled him up in the velcro contraption so he couldn't move and the doctor got to work on his cute forehead! This was by far the very worst part of the night- we just sat right by his head and kept talking to our little man letting him know that he was such a champ! Twelve stiches later (what seemed like an eternity) the doctor was done and we got Davis out of the papose. He was dripping with sweat and not happy one bit! He continued to cry for just a mintue or two more and then put his damp head on my shoulder in silence and exhaustion! The nurse brough him a suffed animal that did make him smile (see pictures below). We then recieved the care instructions, perscriptions (to ward off any infection- specifically staff- yuck), and discharge papers! We then proceeded to the 24 hours pharmacy and headed home! Davis feel fast asleep as we left the parking lot! He slept great that night- a true blessing from God above!

We have learned that as much as we try, we cannot always protect Davis from incidents like this! Gladly we would have traded places with him in a heartbeat if possible. However, it is a gentle reminder that God is in control and that our son is in His hands- and there is no better place for him to be.

Thank you Lord for watching over our son. Thank you for getting us through nights like last night in one piece! Thank you for the love that is evident in our family- it truely is emphasized in moments of crisis. Help us to cherish the good health you have given us and never take it forgranted!

A few pictures the day after- back to his normal rambuctious self!