In Stitches

So I made it through 12 years of parenthood without any of my children having an injury worthy of stitches. 12 years of Josh running and riding and trying to jump to the 5th monkey bar that only resulted in a scraped chin and a broken baby tooth. 10 years of Adam chasing butterflies and throwing rocks and racing with his brother that only resulted in minor scrapes and scratches. And 3 years of Julianna climbing and sliding and running around the playground...which is what finally led to the stitches. Yep. My boys are not the first of my children to require stitches. My cute little girly girl is. Here's the story.

I'm sitting at my desk enjoying the 12 1/2 seconds of peace I have during the day when I hear one of the older boys rush into the building and yell for me. I could tell something was wrong and headed in his direction right away. From the look on his face I knew it wasn't good. All he said was, "Julianna." I started to panic a little, but know from experience that minor things can get made into more than they are. I hurried outside and saw the teacher on duty cradling Julianna and rushing to get her to me. The closer I got, the more blood I saw and once I reached them all I could see was the blood. Luckily my common sense kicked in and reminded me that head wounds always look worse than they are because of the blood. But for a few seconds my mommy sense kicked in, too, and all I could think is that my baby was in my arms covered with blood. (Kathy described her as looking like Carrie during the prom scene in the movie.) I got her into the office and with the help of our secretary, grabbed some tissues to start cleaning her up. Then Kathy came in with wet wipes and we were able to use them to clean her little face and hair and clothes. The more blood we removed, the easier it was to see that it all came from a little 1/2 inch cut right in the middle of her forehead. During all this she never cried. She was mostly mad that I was holding her like a baby and just wanted to be put down. She sat patiently as we ministered to her and calmly told us what had happened. One of her friends was throwing a stuffed dog off the top of the jungle gym and she was running to catch it and ran into one of the poles. And her friend Tyler caught it instead. If the cut would have been a little higher and covered by her hair, I probably would have cleaned it up and left it to heal. But since it was right in the middle of her perfect little forehead I decided to take her to see if she needed stitches.

Our regular doctor was able to see her right away and confirmed that she did in fact need a few stitches to hopefully prevent scarring. So the nurse cleaned it up using her handy, dandy little squirter and since it was pink, Jules was fine with it. Then they put some numbing gel on it for about 5 minutes. Then it was time for the stitches. The only fussing she did through the whole process was when they wanted her to lie down on the examining table. But with a little persuasion she went along with it. (Which was a relief because they also brought in a board with straps into the room in case she wouldn't lie still for the procedure.) They covered her with a sheet covering her whole face except for a hole around the cut. Still she laid still and didn't complain. Then the doctor began the stitching. I watched as much as I could but had to look away a few times. Not because of the needle or blood, but because all I could think of was my baby girl lying on that table being sewn. She was such a trooper, though. Amazingly cooperative and brave. (Braver than at least one of the boys would have been.) Soon she was stitched and bandaged and praised and ready to go. I sent her home with her daddy and headed back to school exhausted from the whole ordeal. But oh so glad that two stitches was all that were needed. And grateful for such a sweet girl, stitches and all.

Here's the injury.

Here's the Tweety Bird bandaid holding on the numbing gel.


Here's Little Miss Stitches with her humongous bandaid and her new "what a brave girl" puppy.

And here's the picture that "needs to be cute."

And another one trying to "be cute."

As you can see, she's no worse for the wear. And cute in every picture if you ask me.