James' first (hopefully last) trip to the ER!

We had such a wonderful time in Utah with our family and friends I knew it would be hard to come back to 'real life'.  Our first week back Dave was still on nights.  It was an especially busy week too.  He was at the hospital for at least 16 hours every night.  Needless to say he was exhausted and I had little (okay I'm being generous) no help with the kids.  By Sunday night we were both pretty spent.  It was our first day and night together as a family in a month.  Dave was still, understandably, tired from his week and I was ready for a good night's rest myself.  I was so excited that both kids were down for bed and asleep before 8:00 I wanted to cry.  Dave and I crashed not too long after that.

And then the fun began.

At around 2:00 am Maddie woke up.  She will do this occasionally at night and usually if it is before 5:00 I leave her alone and she sings herself back asleep in just a couple of minutes on her own.  I didn't know what time it was so I was fumbling around feeling for my phone on my night stand when I knocked off a heavy drinking glass I didn't know was there.  It happened to fall directly on James' face who was sleeping on our floor.

As soon as I heard the thud I was sick.

I screamed before James.  I reached down to find him still in the dark and came up with a hand full of blood.  By then he was crying hard.  Dave jumped out of bed and took James from me to pull him into the bathroom.  As soon as I saw his little face I started to cry too.  He had a deep gash under his eye that was bleeding heavily.  Dave said right away he would need stitches.  Maddie was up in full force at this time too.

I told Dave to stay with Maddie and get some sleep, he had a VERY full day ahead of him that started at 5:00am and wouldn't end until after 10:00pm (he was on call, this is not typical).  James and I took off for the hospital about 15 minutes away.  It was 2:30a when we left.  By this time we had cleaned James up and put on fresh clothes that didn't look like part of a murder scene.
James was unbelievable.

He was calm for the whole ride to the hospital.  I told him not to touch his eye and he was very, very obedient.  Occasionally he would point to it and say 'ouch' or 'yucky eye' but he literally left it alone.  When we got the the ER Dave had called ahead and spoke with the attending pediatric ER doc who met us in triage.  He was super nice and he and the nurse swept us back to our room right away.

James' pointing to his 'owie'

James was still being super brave.  He let them clean, close and bandage his eye with out a fight or much crying.  We were back home and in bed by 4:00am.

Hats off to all the mom's out there with chronically ill children or whose children have suffered severe injury or illness.  It amazes me what a wreck I am when my kids are sick or hurt. Especially having been a pediatric nurse for several years now.  It is so much easier to be calm for other people's kids than your own.

Of course James was fine and running around the very next morning.  I am grateful for the many tender mercies in this experience.  First I am grateful that Dave was home and not working that night.  Second I am grateful Dave knew where we should go and who to call, such a blessing when you are new to an area.  Third I am grateful to the AMAZING staff at Sunrise Children's hospital.  They were so kind to James and me.  And so fast and efficient.  I have had well child check-ups take considerably longer than this ER visit did.  We were in and out in under an hour! Finally I am extremely grateful that it was not worse.  It could have easily landed on his eye and done some very serious damage.  In the end all is well.

I did not take any pictures when we were at the hospital.  It really was the furthest thing from my mind  that night.  So instead here are some pictures of James enjoying an apple at the park about a week later. His black eye has already healed and the gash is closing up nicely.  I think he has forgiven me too.