Mother's Day - Trauma - Check-up

I had a wonderful Mother's Day.  Joseph had a bit of a cold when he woke up so he was really needy and Samuel just wanted to snuggle all day.  It was like they knew it was Mother's Day and wouldn't leave me alone.  Dave took us to a beautiful brunch at the Missouri Athletic Club.  Normally Dave and I pig out at yummy all you can eat brunches, but this time it was Samuel and Joseph.  Samuel ate so much that at the end he looked at us and said he needed to go home.  He was holding his stomach and saying he was "soooo full."  It was actually pretty cute.  After brunch we all took a little nap and then played outside for 45 minutes or so.  It was so hot.  My day was great and I felt so lucky to be with all my boys.

Mother's Day right before we went to brunch.  (Looks like I am grabbing Joseph's crotch, but he would have slipped right off of me if I didn't hold him like that.)

Joseph was loving his breakfast

Samuel was loving that he got to have two juice boxes, which never happens (and a plate full of black olives)

Quick note before I tell the long ER story.  Joseph had his 15 month appointment today.  He is doing great, but he is so much smaller then Samuel was at this time.  He is just my little man, but with his Dad's big head. Here are his statistics:

Height:  31 inches (48%)
Weight:  24 lbs. 6 oz (49%)
Head Circ:  49 CM (92%)



First emergency ER trip.  Yesterday I kept Joseph home from Mother's Day out because he had a slight fever all day on Sunday and was getting over a cough.  I had so many errands and work I needed to do for Woman's Place, so I was looking forward to a day alone.  I called our babysitter that normally picks Samuel up from school on Mondays and asked her to come over early so I could try to get stuff done.

I was very productive in the morning and then I picked Samuel up from school at 11:45.  We got back home and they boys ate lunch and were playing around, so I decided to get back to doing work.  I was downstairs in the basement trying to organize things when I heard a huge thump and then Joseph screaming.  I don't even remember what I was doing or how I got up the stairs so fast but after I heard that sound I knew that something was not good.

When I got upstairs, our babysitter was holding Joseph and I saw some blood on her hands and he was covering his head.  I grabbed him and she removed her hand and there was a big gash.  I haven't really experienced many big wounds, but I guess you just know what to do when you see it.  I think I was calm for about 10 seconds and then my crazy side kicked in.  I immediately knew that we needed to get to the ER because he was going to need stitches.  I grabbed a terry cloth towel, shoved it on his head and then started yelling.  Samuel was completely freaked, which he normally gets when someone is hurt so he was basically frozen.  I knew that I couldn't hold onto Joseph while I drove and he needed continuous pressure on his head to get it to slow down bleeding.  So I screamed that everyone needed to get in the car.  I asked my sitter if she could drive so I could hold the towel to Joseph's head in the back seat.  I know she was completely freaking out too and she asked if she could sit in the back and hold the towel and I could drive.

That was probably the best idea that I drove because at least I could drive like a mad woman and get there fast.  Once we got in the car, I called Dave to meet us at the ER and check us in.  There is a hospital in St. Louis not far from us that has a children's ER and I knew we could get in there pretty quickly and I wanted the opportunity to ask for a plastic surgeon if we needed one to sew up his head.

Our sitter did a great job of slowing down the bleeding and she held his gash closed.  Joseph wasn't liking it very much and screamed the entire way.  I got from our house to the ER in about 15 minutes.  I was flying.  The Silver Stallion held up great.

We got to the ER, got straight in and looked at by a doctor pretty quickly.  She said that the gash looked like it could be fixed by glue, but she wouldn't know for sure until she cleaned it out.  Once Dave heard that it was going to have to be cleaned out, he was already getting queasy.  Since we had two cars at the ER, Dave took Samuel and our sitter home and I stayed with Joseph.

He was really out of control and wouldn't calm down, so they asked if I wanted to give him something that would relax him.  Of course I did.  I didn't want them to be stitching up his head while he was going nuts.  They gave him some meds and put numbing gel all around his cut and wrapped him up.  It was going to take 20 minutes for everything to kick in.

Here he is waiting to get looked at.  The drugs were slowly kicking in:

Drugs started to kick in.  The numbing ointment had just been put on

The doctor finally came in and said that she was going to clean out his gash, check it out to see how deep it was and if stitches were going to be required.  She said if she couldn't fix it with glue I could decide if I wanted to plastic surgeon to come in.  They swaddled Joseph all up in a blanket to hold him still, which still required a nurse to hold him down and hold his head and I held his legs down.

When she cleaned it out she said it was much deeper then she thought, but when she squeezed it shut it came to a perfect straight line, so she thought she could glue it shut.  We decided to try that.  She used a TON of glue, but it did the trick.  Then she put extra bandages to keep it closed.  I told her that she needed to put something else on top of that because Joseph would rip it off as soon as he could.  So that is why he got the big neon yellow band-aid.

After everything was over the medicine was fully in Joseph's system and he was super happy.  See below:

Drugs in full effect and gash is cleaned and glued shut

The whole ER experience took only about 2 hours, which I think was super fast.  We got home around 3 or 3:30.  When I got home Samuel came up to me and pointed to the floor and said, "See Mom, this is where Joseph fell and cracked his head open."  Great!

Joseph ended up sleeping all night and is doing well today.  I gave him Advil when he woke up and I will give it to him again soon.  I want to try to keep his pain under control.  He is a trooper and so are all of us.  This is our first ER experience, but I am sure it won't be the last.  With three kids, I am sure we will be visiting again.  I am sure I will be getting lots more grey hairs and loosing more years off my life because of the stress.  The benefits of parenting.

I am done with drama.  Please everyone have at least two drinks for me.  I seriously have needed to drink the entire month of April and it looks like May is starting off that way too.