Even with his stitches, his sleepy smile is still so sweet!
The last couple weeks have been a whirlwind of learning, sleep-deprivation, and most importantly, getting to know the amazing tiny person that has come into our lives. For the most part, I’ve taken each initiation into parenthood in stride. I’ve been peed/pooped on, dealt with the feeding frenzy of growth spurts, and spun more loads of laundry than I ever thought was humanly possible. But it’s all gone pretty smoothly, with the exception of one blip on the radar that happened last week.
My husband and I are animal people. We joke that our first children are our three cats and our dog, all adopted from the Philly streets. Our pets are spoiled, but all are gentle. So far, they have shown a complete lack of interest in Charlie. Nonetheless, we have one cat named Louie who is easily spooked and will often take off running at the slightest noise. On Friday, Charlie and I were sitting on the couch watching the exchange of vows between Kate Middleton and Prince William, when Louie heard something he didn’t like and made a break for the stairs to the second floor of our house. Unfortunately, his path was over my shoulder and Charlie’s face. It happened so fast that I didn’t even quite know what was going on, until I looked down at my baby and saw blood. In his rush to escape, Louie had sunk a single claw just above Charlie’s lip. It looked deep, jagged, and bloody.
Charlie and I both screamed. I kept screaming until my husband was downstairs, grabbing the baby from me, and talking me through calling the pediatrician and explaining the situation. By the time I got through to our physician, Charlie had fallen back to sleep. The doctor seemed hopeful that we could just bring him into the office to get it checked out and be done with it, but I was concerned that it was going to bleed every time he tried to eat. My fears were confirmed when the doctor looked at the wound and told me to go to Children’s Hospital to get stitches. My husband was at work, so this was going to be a solo journey for me.
I was exhausted, scared, and feeling like the worst mother in the whole world as we drove across town to the ER. I kept it all together as I explained the injury to the intake people, then the ER nurse, and then the doctor who was going to do the suturing. But the moment I lost is was when I had to hold him down as he cried out in fear while numbing cream was applied to his face. Sucking his thumb is a big soothing mechanism for Charlie and forcing him down on the table and preventing him from calming himself was more than I could take. I cried big huge mommy tears as I tried to coo words of support to him. It got worse when we had to strap him to a board and hold him down again for the suturing. Charlie screamed like I’d never heard him scream before. I had to step outside the room for a minute to get myself together and then come back to help the nurse hold him down.
But as the suturing needle was being thread, Charlie did something amazing. He fell asleep! Mid-scream, his eyes closed and he went silent. He let out the usual sigh that he makes as he starts to slumber and proceeded to sleep through the entire suturing process. The doctor joked that it was a sign that he must really love his mommy because he chose to give me a break. I kind of believed her. Three tiny stitches later, he looked like a mini-badass and we were on our way home.
We’ve since recovered quite well from the incident. Charlie’s stitches come out tomorrow and he’s almost totally healed. Louie seems to know that he’s better off staying far away from anywhere Charlie is hanging out. And I’m feeling a bit more confident as a mom since I managed an ER visit all on my own when my son was only 11 days old.
What was your first scare as a parent? If you have pets – how have you integrated your baby into a household that was previously ruled by your “furry children?”
Kate
May 3, 2011Oh Laura, reading this my heart just breaks – for YOU just as much as for little Charlie. What a sad little freak accident. I hope Charlie heals well!
saph @ frugal wife blog
May 3, 2011Oh wow, poor Charlie! So glad he was able to sleep through the suturing! I just had my 2nd baby 3 wks ago and would have such a hard time having to hold my baby down while wailing. My baby’s cry always pulls my heartstrings.
Liz
May 4, 2011You poor thing! This totally made me cry for you!
Kate
May 4, 2011Oh Laura! My heart breaks for you but I’m so glad you all made it through! When my daughter was 3 months old I was carrying her down a flight of stairs in her carseat (fortunately) when my feet went out from under me. We both went tumbling down the entire flight of stairs! I was screaming, she was screaming, and my husband rushed to help us (gotta love those husbands!). She had a bump on her forehead and had to have a CAT scan but all was fine….except for my HUGE mommy-guilt!
D Schmidt
May 8, 2011You poor thing that must have been so scary!
I am due to give birth next month and have an active 2 year old so am thinking of investing in bubble wrap to protect the newbie
Lamb
May 11, 2011Aaaaw! Poor thing (and poor mama too!)
Shannon Kelly
May 11, 2011Oh my goodness! I’m just catching up on posts and cannot believe this. Poor Charlie. Poor mama. Poor Daddy. Poor Louie. I’m so glad everyone and everything is okay. I always find it amazing that doing something that is good for your child can hurt so much. I’ve had to hold mine for blood draws, inhalation treatments, sweat tests, etc. It never gets any easier.
Lisa
July 1, 2011Get extras of things like pump parts, bottles/sippy cups, baby food jars, etc. too. I can’t tell you how much time I spent washing things while on maternity leave, and how great it is that we now have a nanny who takes care of washing our son’s bottles/sippys every night and making his evening and next morning bottles before she goes. On the days we do back-up daycare, I try to pack the diaper bag the night before, and leave a list on top before I go to bed of what needs to be thrown in in the AM. Also, on Sundays, I cook something we can eat Sunday and Tuesday, and if I have time, I try to cook other things over the weekend, too, so that on 2-3 weeknights we can just defrost something. And I plan out my son’s schedule and menu for the week (activities, clothes, food, etc.) on Sunday nights also, writing all of the pertinent info for each day on a daily log sheet we leave for the nanny. It’s so much easier to get out of the house when I know that I’ve already planned out what he’s doing and eating — and again, when our nanny calls out sick, much easier to get Nolan to back-up care with everything he needs.