One Baby, Two Stitches

How do I love the emergency room? Let me count the stitches! Poor C. was standing up on a dining room chair when she toppled over, cutting her bottom lip. Baby teeth are so sharp! Two of her top teeth went right through her lip. She wasn't the least bit brave (shame on you, you 15 month-old baby) and cried lots and lots in the ER. She wasn't fooled one bit by the sweet-talking nurses telling her it'd be okay. That's what the nurse said on Wednesday right before they gave her her immunizations--stuck needles right in her thighs! Poor wit-o girl.



Here are our ER visits and WHY we decided the injuries were bad enough to warrant a trip to the emergency room:

1. J. jumped off our bed as a 2 year-old and hit his face on the wall. We found out that kid noses are just cartilage. I'm glad we took him in just to be safe, his whole nose and cheeks turned purple when he hit!

2. A first grader, R. and his friends were at the park playing "ice cream machine" with their upturned bikes. R tried to stop the chain from spinning by grabbing it with his fingers. He broke his ring finger and pinky on his right hand. We knew it was a good idea to take him to the ER right away. His pinky was hanging on by a small bit of skin!

3. S. was swinging ona small round table at the chapel when it tipped over and crushed her fingers. Same hand as R! She broke her ring finger and needed stitches. We didn't know if her injuries were bad enough, but there was an RN at the chapel that night and she recommended we take her in because of how the skin was split open. I didn't think there would be any broken bones. The tabletop was small and she was being very brave, not too much crying at all. She just kept repeating "I didn't know that was going to happen!"

We did have one incident I wish I could change. (Should have been a trip to the ER, but wasn't.) At age three, R's friend threw the base of a swing and it hit him right on the cheek. It immediately turned black and blue, but since there was no blood we didn't take him to the ER. After the discoloration went away we noticed that his smile was no longer symmetrical, the swing caused muscle damage to his cheek.