Mommy Monday; I know it's a lot of blood but don't freak out...

I always thought I would be calm and collected when my children came in bleeding or with broken bones. I always have been with myself, I popped my own broken foot back into place in 8th grade, I wanted to see the tissue the doctor cut out of me and had a ton of cuts and bruises in my lifetime. Yesterday I had my first chance to react as mommy to a hurt child. And I FREAKED OUT!!

That's right, no calm and collected Becca, but sweating hot, not knowing what to do, almost passing out mom is what I was. It was kinda warm so Cian and I were sitting out in the yard. He was running and I was reading. There was a man walking down the street and Cian and I said hi to him. He was asking Cian if he was in jail because he was behind our picket fence. I was laughing and said yes and Cian came running down the sidewalk toward me. He ran right at me and tripped and fell. He has fallen a million times but this time he fell right into the bottom concrete step leading into our house. He hit the corner and I saw his little head bounce back. Cian immediately started wailing. The guy asked if he was ok and I was like, yeah he's fine. Then I looked at him and saw that he has blood running, and I mean running down his face. This is where I went from good to not so good. I scooped him up and muttered something incomprehensible to the guy and ran into the bathroom.

The bright light of the bathroom is where I saw the big ole gash on his forehead where the river of blood was now spewing. The first aid class I had didn't come back at all, I yelled at Steve and just said, "Cian fell, he's bleeding like crazy, what do I do?" Well you try to stop the blood genius. This isn't what Steve said but it should have been. He brought me a washcloth and I held it against Cian's forehead to stop the bleeding. By this time I have blood all over my face along with Cian. Steve looked at the cut and we both agreed it was time for our first trip to the ER as parents.

Thank God I wasn't home by myself because we would have made it to the hospital without anything! I grabbed Cian and ran out the car and put him in his car seat. It was about that time that I started feeling sweaty and hot and like I just might pass out. Steve got my purse from the house and brought my book and our stuff inside and came out to drive us to the hospital. Cian calmed down on the way but wouldn't let me hold the washcloth on his head. He has stopped bleeding so I calmed down. We got to the ER and checked Cian in. Steve had to finish the paperwork because I started feeling sweaty again and had to sit down. Cian ran around and played in the waiting room during the hour that we waited like his head was not gashed open and he didn't have crusted blood on his face and hands.

When we got back to a room the Physicians Assistant came in and talked to us and said he would need about 3 stitches but there shouldn't be any worry about brain damage. (Holy crap, I hadn't even thought of that!!). He said they would wrap Cian up like a burrito and give him a shot to numb his head then do the stitches. We waited a bit longer and he came back with the nurse (who I knew from aerobics). They did wrap little Cian up in a sheet like a burrito and laid him down on the bed. They turned the light on really bright like they do at the dentist office. This was so they could see and so he would shut his eyes and not see the giant needle coming at his head. They said this was hard for parents to watch and I immediately started praying not to pass out. They gave him the shot and his head bled again, or at least the fluid from the shot made more blood run down the side of his face. My poor little guy was screaming at this point and Steve and I were talking to him and trying to get him to calm down. (Cue sweaty pass out feeling in mommy again). The stitching part came next and Cian flinched on the first one but by the second one he was telling the doctor his favorite Star Wars characters and falling asleep. After they finished with the stitches the nurse gave him a Popsicle which he promptly devoured. We had talked about ice cream but they saved us a trip!

So, first ER trip survived. Cian did so much better than I did. Guess I need to work on this whole stay calm thing...The wound. Still not sure if I will get the blood out of the shirts

In the bath washing off the crusty blood

Our neighbor that was outside when Cian fell came over tonight to make sure he was ok. He said he couldn't sleep last night because he was worried about his little buddy. How sweet! He also said he was worried because of how easy brain damage can happen. (Still, holy cow I didn't even think of that)!