Our First Trip to the ER

Yes, Caleb had his first ride in an ambulance this morning. A little too much excitement for me but I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later. First of all, before anyone panics, the boy is alright just had to have a few stitches. Both Caleb and Sadie are taking long naps right now which means that I can take a few minutes to write this out and hopefully process it myself.

Here's what happened...

Sadie was down for her morning nap and Caleb wanted to play outside so I thought I would take advantage of the the time and get some yard work done. I had finished mowing and was doing some trimming while Caleb was scooting on his little bike up and down the sidewalk. I heard him cry out as he fell over on the front steps and went over to help him up 'cause he looked a little tangled. When I picked him up blood was coming out of his forehead- more blood than I had ever seen before.

Adrenaline kicked in and I ran into the house to grab a towel to stop the bleeding. I kept thinking over the first aid directions I had been taught when I worked in day care... "apply pressure. okay, doing that. elevate... well, he's standing so that's about as elevated as I can do. call for help." Here's where I ran into a problem. I was not going to be able to get him inside to call for help, while also trying to keep him calm and stop the bleeding. The neighbors were gone. Andy was at work. I didn't know what to do. Then I saw the mailman just up the street. Of course, I don't know his name (the neighbors call him Stretch) so I just yelled "Hey, Mr. Mailman, could you please come help me for a minute?" Well, he saw me holding Caleb and ran down to see how he could help. I explained what happened and he ran inside the house to call 911. While we were waiting for the ambulance, he also called Andy to tell him to come home quick. Poor Andy, can you imagine, getting a call at work, with a strange man saying that your spouse and child have had an accident. The mailman tried to explain what happened but I know Andy's mind was racing with all that could possibly have been wrong.

By the time the ambulance got here, the bleeding had stopped but I could tell that the cut was deep and kept it covered for fear that it might start bleeding again. Caleb had calmed down a bit but of course, he still wasn't happy that Mommy kept putting a towel in his face. He did manage to ooh and ah and point when the ambulance pulled up. The EMTs were very nice but Caleb wanted nothing to do with them. They could see that the bleeding had stopped and that Caleb would need stitches so there wasn't much they could do on site. Andy made it home shortly after the ambulance got here and he and Caleb went for a ride to the hospital. Sadie slept through all of this, of course.

Shortly after lunch, Andy called to give an update and Sadie and I went to go pick them up. Apparently, Caleb was very good for the doctors and nurses as long as they weren't touching his head but he did require a bit of entertaining while they were stitching him up and "Itsy, Bitsy, Spider" seemed to help. He has three stitches and a bright orange band aid as well as a new sippy cup from his trip to the ER. We're thinking that tonight we'll take a special trip to Target to get a special ambulance for him for being such a brave boy through it all.

Overall, I think I was more traumatized by the whole incident. There's something about seeing your child hurt and not being able to fix it. I knew fairly quickly that he would be alright but I was still upset at seeing him hurt like that. Andy said it was good that I stayed with Sadie instead of going to the ER with Caleb. I don't think I would have done very well with all that. I'll probably still be a little weepy about it for the next day or so but we are so thankful that he wasn't hurt worse. And I'm so thankful that the mailman was willing to come and help me out and that Andy works so close to home.

After all this, I think I'm ready for a nap myself. I'll have to post some pictures later on.
God Bless