On the night of Dan Calderwood's viewing, Jacob and I didn't get home until fairly late. I have to hand it to our little monkeys, they have done really well lately in being responsible when Jacob and I go out. Granted they're in the 5-12 year age range, therefore the term "responsible" is used loosely. But, when they can get themselves to bed at the time they've been asked to and the house and all parties residing therein are still (partially) in one piece, I consider it a victory!
Since we were gone, Lexi ended up sleeping down in Kenna'a bed. It's not too often, but every once in a while if she doesn't go to the bathroom before bed she has a little accident. Well early Friday morning Lexi ended up wetting the bed, and while she was still half asleep and fumbling to try to get to the bathroom she managed to tumble out of the bed and smack right into Kenna's night stand. I could hear her down in the bathroom crying and figured she had wet the bed. I thought she might come upstairs, but she just kept crying down there so I fumbled myself out of bed to go down and help her out. It took me a minute to get my bearings, but I noticed she had a little bit of blood on her nose and forehead. She had her hand over the side of her mouth so I pulled it away to see if I could figure out where the blood was coming from. I thought maybe I'd see a bit of a bloody lip, but instead I found a pretty nasty gash right above her lip. It was pretty darn obvious this one was a doozy that would require some stitches. Yup, happy Friday! Let's get rockin' on the ol' deductible for the year! Here's my poor little split-lip:
This is one of those ambivalent situations in parenting I really don't like. It's 6:15 in the morning and my child has a gash above her lip that needs some attention. Well now what!?!? Jacob and I didn't feel like a rush to the ER was necessary, but didn't know how long an open wound could just hang out for. The Instacare was option 2, but they were closed. But then again, I don't want some Joe Shmoe who's assigned to the Instacare to sew up my daughter's face. Fortunately, the Pediatrician has an after-hours option. I was put through to whoever was on-call that morning (who, by the sound of her voice, had obviously been in a deep sleep just moments prior) and she told me we were good to wait until the office opened to get her in. At least we could sit tight for a minute. As soon as they opened I called and got an appointment at the pediatrician's office. While we were waiting to head in, my mom called and suggested we go to the Ear, Nose, and Throat doc where they're trained in facial reconstruction. Brilliant! I was able to cancel the pediatrician and get her in to see Doc Bennion at Cache Valley ENT.
Random sidenote: Bennion works in the same office as Doc Wood who was on-call when my sister, Stephanie was in her car accident in high school and pretty much got scalped. He did a fantastic job sewing her back up.
My parents were in town waiting for another appointment for my mom, so they stopped in to give a little love while we waited. A mom can always use backup! I will never outgrow my mom. And dad, of course.
When we got in, the Doc agreed stitches were needed. Now I was faced with yet another great parenting decision: We could give her some meds to make her loopy while they sewed her up, or we could do the quick shot to numb it and then sew it up. He was happy doing either one, but said the mom knows best so I just needed to decide. Normally Lexi does really well with needles and doctors. She is always a champ with vaccinations so I figured the quick poke with the numbing medicine would work out fine. I also had flashbacks to when Allie split her forehead open and was (surprisingly) able to tolerate the shot. Allie was quite the toddler, so if she could handle it I figured Lexi could definitely do it. Besides, I hate seeing my kids drugged up.
Well, I think I chose wrong. It took 3 of us to hold the poor little thing down while he put (shoved) the needle in to numb her up. After that fiasco we sat and snuggled for about 20 minutes waiting for it to get good and numb. I was starting to get a little worried how we were going to get those stitches in, so tried to butter her up so she would even consider letting the doc get close to her again. She was pretty apprehensive, but we managed to get her to lie down again. She was SO brave as he stitched her up. The poor thing was so scared. I was holding her hands down on her belly trying to think of anything and everything to keep her focused on something else. We ended up singing "Where is Thumbkin", "The Wheels on the Bus," and "Five Little Monkeys." Fortunately after the last monkey got snapped out of the tree by the crocodile, it was almost done. Whew, I was exhausted and my poor little lady was too. I told the doctor and nurses they didn't know they were going to get serenaded that day! They were all super sweet about it. Oh but I felt like such a horrible mom making her suffer like that! Needless to say my mom guilt got the better of me and I let her pick out a pretty darn nice stuffed animal at the pharmacy right next to the doc's office. I don't regret it, either. That stuffed animal has been the love of her life for the past week!
We had to head back in a week later to get the stitches out and put some surgical glue on it. She was pretty nervous, but was a good little champ. We go in once again this next week to have some steri-strips put on just to make sure and keep it together. Fortunately the doc thinks it will heal very well. I sure hope so!
So glad that little event is mostly over and done with. Another fine mom moment down in the books. Now that we're on the other side of it, the lump in my tummy about making her suffer has eased a bit. I think she'll be ok. If anything, maybe she's learned that sometimes rough things happen and we just have to endure. And of course that mommy is there to snuggle through the worst of it!
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