So Luke started walking by himself (rather than just cruising along the furniture or holding our fingers) almost 3 months go. He has steadily gotten a lot better at catching himself before he falls, or throwing his butt behind him to fall backwards rather than forwards, however he still trips over his toes sometimes and falls straight forward. He's a really happy kid (unless he's hungry or tired) and doesn't usually whine when he falls unless he hits into something. So it has been really great to have him walking because I can just tell him to come to me or to follow me rather than go pick him up all the time. Especially now that I'm really starting to feel pregnant in my belly and back, I'm grateful I don't have to carry him everywhere.
I took Luke on a walk to the small farm by my Mother-in-law's house to see the sheep and ducks. He loved it!
There are plenty of reasons I'm so glad Luke learned to walk, but that is not what I have to post about today. This is the biggest con to walking there could be and it is still emotional to me. The biggest con to walking is Luke falling and hitting his head on something. Usually it is something blunt and he just needs a hug better, but we weren't that lucky Wednesday night.
This is my happy boy on our walk wednesday afternoon.
The night before last, April 6th to be exact, Tyler and Luke and I were at our new house working on getting it ready to move in. We.... No Tyler... has fixed most of the plumbing problems but we still have to re-pipe from the main line into the laundry room and kitchen. Well he was piping from the main line to the bathroom on wednesday night and he was having a really tough time with one part in particular that he didn't have the right tools to tighten enough. It was leaking a little but he couldn't get it to unscrew to try putting on more scilicon tape and he couldn't get it to screw on tighter hoping that would stop the leak. SO, it was taking a lot longer than we expected.
Luke has slowly warmed up to our new house and felt comfortable enough to leave us working and go explore. Since we haven't moved in yet and all the tools he could hurt himself with are in with us so we can watch him, it really isn't a big deal to let him walk around by himself. Well he was in his room by himself and the light was off and there was a loud bump sound and he was crying. I went to grab his blanket to comfort him and Tyler went in to get him from his room.
When Tyler came out with Luke, Tyler was panicking a little and told me to grab a towel. I turned around Luke was bleeding from his forehead. The blood was running down and I spun around looking for something clean to put on it. I found a roll of paper towel and tried to put pressure on the wound. it looked really deep and I told Tyler we'd need to go get him stitches. I got Luke in his car seat and got in next to him while Tyler locked up the house. We then hurried to the only Insta care I knew of close to us but when we got there it was 9:10 pm and they closed at 9. I told Tyler to go bang on the door and see if someone would come help us but he decided we should take Luke to the Emergency Room instead. I called an urgent care after hours place but they closed at 9 too so our only option was the Emergency room. As Tyler got back in the car Luke started signing "more". If he's not already eating he usually uses that sign to indicate that he would like to be eating. I wasn't sure if the doctors would be upset but I just wanted to make my little guy stop crying. I found some banana cookies in my purse and gave him one and to my relief he stopped crying. He at ALL of the cookies I had left on the drive up to McKayDee Hospital (the closest hospital to us that is covered on our insurance) and when he ate them all he was a much more content boy. He didn't seem to care about his head at all unless I tried to dab the cut with my paper towel.
The bleeding had mostly stopped shortly after we got in the car and I could see that it was a really deep cut, and I wasn't sure what he'd hit his head on but the only thing I could think of that was really sharp for him to fall on was the corner of the baseboard around his closet. I figured that had to be it.
We got to the Emergency Room and I had no idea what to expect. I'd never had to make a trip to the ER before. The nurses in triage were so nice and Luke just sat on my lap and rested his head on my chest and let them take his pulse and get his info. Then they told us it would probably be a 30 minute wait. Seriously?! My little 1 year old boy has his head gaping open and you're telling me I have to sit and try to keep him from touching it or falling on it when he's restless because he should be in bed??! It was not easy.
I took this picture in the waiting room... I don't think it does justice to the depth of the cut.
The wait was longer than 30 minutes and I was getting really impatient so I went and asked how much longer it would be. The nurse said they were just cleaning a room right now and so it would only be a couple more minutes. Gratefully, it really was only a couple more minutes. However, once we were in our room we waited another 15 minutes for the doctor to come look at it and decide he needed to go get numbing stuff to put on it that would take 30 more minutes to take effect! Then it was another 5-10 minutes for him to come back with the numbing stuff! I thought the whole point of the Emergency room was that it was an emergency and needed immediate attention. Tyler had to make a trip to the ER once when he was in college so he wasn't surprised and thought I was naive for being so surprised.
Well when the doctor came back with the numbing stuff he said he was going to send us to a different doctor for some reason and that it was just down the hall. So. . . we went down the hall where the said, "Dr. Hatch with be in in just a few minutes." In a few minutes a nurse came in and got some info and left saying the Dr. would be right in. 15 minutes later another lady came in and she was the one who had to type up the story of how Luke got hurt and take our insurance info. When she left it was still 20 minutes or so before the Dr. came in. I understand they're busy. Just don't tell me it will only be a few minutes when it is going to be 45 minutes! That drives me crazy! So he came in with the first nurse that came in and a male nurse named Mike who looked like he was there to be the muscles to keep Luke stationary. I was mostly right. The doctor told the two nurses to numb the area more and then clean it out and then he'd be back to stitch it up. Numbing it up more meant stick a syringe in around the entire thing and shoot numbing stuff into the skin. I sat and held Lukes legs while tyler held his hands and waist and the male nurse held his head. I hate hearing Luke scream like he did. I don't think he could feel it much because he was already somewhat numb, but he really hates to be confined and he was scared and didn't understand why Tyler and I wouldn't just pick him up and take him away from these people. I wanted to.
So the Dr. came back and started stitching him up and by this time it was almost midnight. I hadn't had anything to eat since 7ish and I was getting really woozy. I had to sit down and Let Tyler hold both Luke's middle and legs so I wouldn't pass out. The nurse lady got me some juice and crackers and shortly after that the stitches were done. Tyler picked Luke up and he stopped crying and signed "more" at the sight of my food. I was happy to see he wasn't crying from pain. He was even talkative to nurse Mike as he ate his crackers. The lady nurse brought me and handful more of crackers and our discharge papers and we went on our way.
This one was taking yesterday (Thursday) afternoon. My mother-in-law was taking it and Luke kept trying to hide from the camera so it isn't the best.
This is the clearest picture of his stiches, but I took it with the flash on and so he blinked right as the picture was taken. Haha, I get a kick out of that part... not the stitches part. I took this one this morning
This one isn't very clear but that is because he was moving so much. I turned the flash off and got a picture of the happy boy he still is. His eye lid seems a little swollen today, but I am surprised it isn't black and blue!
Luke doesn't act like he's in pain at all. He's been such a good sport and I'm so grateful he wasnt hurt more. He didn't show signs of a concussion and he has slept well and been a happy boy ever since. He is very patient when I change his bandage and lets me take care of him. I just never ever want to have to go to the ER again!
Here's Luke at breakfast the morning after. Just making a mess and loving life like nothing traumatizing had taking place the night before.
After we went back to our house yesterday we looked at the dried blood drips on the floor and determined that Luke most likely cut his head open tripping and hitting his head on the bottom shelf in his closet. His closet doesn't have any doors yet and the shelves aren't rounded or softened at all. I'm grateful the injury wasn't worse, but I'm pretty paranoid about every fall he has now!
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