rite of passage

Lollipop and a Cars band-aid mean everything's fine

Today we went to the ER with our first head wound.  It is miraculous that between the two (very active) boys, this is the first time we have gone in need of stitches.

This morning Benjamin and Asher were jumping on the couch.  They had done this last night, and Meema and I had told them it was dangerous, because they could fall off and hit their heads on the coffee table.  Well, we must be soothsayers, because this morning the jumping began again, and what do you know.  I was in the kitchen and heard thumps and yelled to the boys, "No jumping on the couch!" And then I heard a huge thump, and crying.  I rushed in and when I saw blood, I grabbed Benjamin and raced him upstairs to Eric.

I couldn't look at it- I started to while Eric was wiping off the blood, but then I got that hot-cold-nauseous feeling like I was going to pass out or throw up and had to sit down on the toilet.  Great mom I am!  Eric said it didn't look bad, and he put a band-aid on it.

After we had finished breakfast and were working on getting dressed, I noticed he was still bleeding.  Well, more I noticed that there was blood on stuff, like my comforter, but whatever.  So I called the doctor, who said come in.

We went to the doctor's office (me with all 3 kids) and the nurse practitioner said, "Oh, yeah.  You need stitches.  Go to the ER."

Everyone was crabby from no food, and Eric decided we should treat the boys, since Benjamin was having a rough day.  Actually, Benjamin seemed totally fine and undisturbed by everything.  Asher seemed much more upset.  Benjamin didn't seem bothered by the idea that he was going to the hospital.  We went out to lunch, where all 3 kids were great, and then Asher and Charlotte went home to nap, and Benjamin and I went to the hospital.  He really didn't understand that going to the hospital was upsetting to me, and asked me questions all the way to the hospital.  "Why is there traffic? Why is the garbage truck stinky? What are those trucks doing?"

When we got there, they took us in right away- fortunately for us, it was quiet.  Here is Benjamin with a lidocaine-soaked cotton ball over his wound to numb it:

He was so adorable and agreeable.  He got my phone after I took this picture and turned the camera on himself- he had no idea what he looked like until he saw himself in the phone, and then he got excited- "I like a pirate!" The doctor told me they would put him in a "papoose" for the stitching and I said no way.  I just thought that he was so calm, it would panic ME to be strapped to a board and I would know what they were doing and why, so it would probably make Benjamin totally hysterical.  Benjamin was also very verbal, and was able to tell all the doctors and nurses why he was there, and how he got his big cut.  Big, long, compound sentences.  Hurray!

When it came time to do the stitching, I could see he was getting a little nervous.  It was a physician's assistant doing the work, and she had to wash his wound out, which he didn't like because it got him wet.  But once that was over, he was completely calm and let them stitch him up- right up until the last stitch!  I think at one point he might even have dozed off, if you can believe it (totally his father's son).

Meema had come to keep me company and support me, because she remembered how traumatic it was when my sister needed stitches in her eyelid as a toddler.  We agreed that he was the bravest guy we'd ever seen.  I was impressed by how calm and cooperative he was, as were all the nurses who had come in to hold him down for the stitching and whose services weren't needed.

our treat

As a reward, the nurses gave him an orange popsicle.  We split it- mommy needed some comforting, too!  He was completely himself the rest of the day, albeit tired.  He didn't seem traumatized in the least!  I needed recovery, in the form of chocolate ice cream.