While getting Baby A's bath water ready this evening, he was standing next to me holding onto the bathroom counter- don't worry, I was between him and the bathtub. He lost his footing and fell. Normally Baby A taking a fall is no big deal. Tonight, he smacked his poor little noggin right on the edging (where it comes to a corner) of the bathroom cabinet. My heart literally stopped beating. I caught him, but I was to late, his head hit that corner and he rolled a bit. My poor baby now has a nice red line going from his forehead to his cheek (thankfully, his eye was completely missed). We were lucky this bump did not break the skin but it let an indentation and immediately turned purple. Scared poopless, I consoled my crying baby until he calmed and I was able to get a good look at it- I grabbed my phone, took pictures and sent them to my uncle (he's a firefighter) and he showed the pictures to the medic on duty. Thankfully the medic was not concerned and they told me to keep Baby A up for a while and watch his behavior. They told me what warning signs to watch for in case of possible concussion.
Baby A normally goes to sleep at 7:30 if not before. The bump happened at 6:45ish so I had to keep Baby A up way past his bed time!! He stayed up until 10 and was a complete champ about it. Nothing out of the norm for him, he played, ate cheerios, watched Beauty and the Beast with me and everything else he normally does. Within 20 minutes of the bump happening the indentation went away and his poor scrape was just bright red.
Some of you may be questioning why I didn't take him straight to the ER or call 911. I have many reasons to why I did not do that and let me explain a few:
-If you freak, they freak. Babies feed off your energy just like adults feed of off other adults energy- if I had started freaking the F out the Baby A would have gotten scared and cried which wouldn't have helped the situation any.
-The skin didn't break and he wasn't bleeding. Had the skin broke I probably would have taken him to the ER. It's better safe than sorry with a little one.
-I knew my uncle would help. Not only is he a firefighter, trained to know what to look for in incidences where an accident has happened, and knows medics that he could consult if necessary, but he's also a father of three and has seen every injury in the book.
-The bump was changing colors- it started off purple (it was initially bruising I'm sure) and then went to red. Had it of stayed purple- I would have taken him to the ER.
-There was no swelling. I know that when I get scrapes, the scrape itself swells up for a bit. His did not swell at all which reassured me that it was just a surface scratch.
You never know what true fear is like until you've had a child. There is no greater fear in this world than the fear of pain and suffering for your child; your flesh and blood. When he smacked his noggin my heart stopped and I moved like lightening to catch him. I stayed by his side for the next three hours and checked his head every five minutes (if I waited that long). My heart ached the entire time and is still aching. He is long since asleep as I should be too but I can't sleep. I've checked on him five times since I've put him down and I wish so badly there was something I could do. It kills me not knowing if it hurts him. Does it sting? Throb? Do you not even notice it? My little trooper didnt cry once after I consoled him after the fall. Not once. Yet it looks like it hurts a bunch. My poor little guy.
What's funny too is that it's really not even that bad. I've had way worse scrapes and cuts than that and have hit my head ten times harder than he hit his, but none of that matters because when you're a mother- even a unintentional scratch that he gave himself with his fingernail breaks your heart. Tomorrow will come with a nasty looking bruise that will crumble what is left of my aching heart, but I must remember that it is merely surface and did not do any damage to his beautiful skin (thank goodness, I'd be devastated and a crying mess if he had gotten an actual cut from this!).
Baby A will be fine. He went to bed smiling and laughing at me as I made silly faces and told him I loved him. This was more traumatic for me than for him.
Tonight, I leave you with a quote.
“A mother's love for her child is like nothing else in the world. It knows no law, no pity. It dares all things and crushes down remorselessly all that stands in its path.”. ― Agatha Christie
**Update: Baby A woke up today with no bruising and a much lighter mark! So relieved**
No comments:
Post a Comment