Cause & Effect

So remember how I mentioned that my thirteen month old is loving to climb on things lately. Namely, things with wheels. And how it's really not abnormal for his age, but that for me, it is.

Well, I guess I shouldn't have been surprised when he took a tumble and actually hurt himself. (For those of you who don't know, Austin is a tough kid, and even if his fingers are closed in a door, he'll just 'suck it up'.)

But I saw this one happen in slow motion. It was my first, "does he need stitches?" moment. I'm sure it won't be my last, being I'm a mommy of boys!

He was on Jake's tricycle in the living room. Luckily he was sitting and not doing this:

And the trike tipped over, landing his face right on the unfortunately placed glass door to the entertainment center. (Oh! I wish I had put away the DVDs and closed that door when I had realized Jake got into them an hour prior!) And how I wish I would have realized that the foam corner protector on the glass had slipped a few centimeters, completely exposing the glass corner! My heart stopped for a moment as I instinctively jumped up and ran to him, it looked like his eye hit the corner of that glass!

So I can hear the voices of my more seasoned mommas telling me it's okay, it's no big deal, its nothing-- we'll have many more times like this in the years ahead. But this was my first!

I knew it wasn't a big deal even as I fumbled into our room to wake Kevin, saying, "Look, honey! He has a gash! Look, it's gaping!" I knew we didn't need to go to the ER, even as my heart was racing and I asked uncertainly, "Does he need stitches? Does he need a tetanus shot?" And I almost laughed aloud at myself when I thought, "Is this gonna scar?!?"

I'm a nurse, but only one or two days a week. All the other days, I'm mom. All that nurse stuff goes out of my brain, and I get that crazy mommy-adrenaline and uncertainty. Luckily I came to my senses and was able to render proper first aid to my poor little 'un. Even now, I'm thinking, "could it have been a little deeper than I thought? Did I look close enough? He was wiggling so much, how deep was it really? I didn't see a bottom to it... Should I go look?" CRAZINESS!

Now, don't laugh--- here's the "gash". It's not much of a gash, I'll give you that, but it was gaping a bit. Quite a slice. Now it's all cleaned up, dressed, & a bit swollen, but Austin doesn't even know it's there.

A safe distraction (as long as the lid stays on) ... yumm, Hydrocortisone.

In the background you can see the plastic bag I found under the sink with my first aid supplies... very fancy & organized! As I rummaged through the bag I was shouting into the bedroom, "What the heck, I'm a nurse and I don't even have any sterile gauze!" To which Kevin replied, "Just use soap and water!" What? Are you kidding!?!? No way!!! heehee Not when I have all this cool medical stuff I can use!!! Okay, so I guess I am still a nurse when I'm off-duty.

I ended up reinforcing the top steri-strip with a longer one that extends behind his ear- to put a little traction on the skin and pull it together. Sometimes I think steri-strips are better than stitches. If only I had some Tincture of Benzoin. Or even better, Dermabond!