Big Boo-Boo

So...since we were snowed in, we decided it was the prime opportunity to reveal our big Christmas gift for the kids (we wanted to give it to them early since we'd be out of town for Christmas Day). After the kids were in bed on Saturday night, we put together their new 50's Diner, and then gave it to them the next morning. It's pretty cool -- it has a kitchen on one side and a booth on the other side. I think they'll both really enjoy it over the next few years.


So, one minute, Tessa was enjoying her meal of hot dog, hamburger and ice cream scoop...

...and the next minute she had fallen off the seat and managed to wedge the ice cream scoop between her head and the floor. When I picked her up, I was shocked to see blood, but immediately assumed she had bitten her lip or tongue. And then I saw the big gash on her forehead! :( I still have no idea how a toy plastic ice cream scoop managed to gouge her head...but it happened. So, here we are...snowed in and pretty sure that she's going to need stitches. A quick call to our pediatrician confirmed that we needed to take her in within the next few hours. Fortunately, Dave had done quite a bit of shoveling the day before, so he just had to finish off the driveway, while I got the kids ready for a trip to the ER. I've never been so happy to have 4-wheel drive! The main roads were actually ok, we were just lucky to make it out of our neighborhood.

Our poor baby ended up with 4 stitches in her forehead. Calder wasn't allowed into the ER room, so Dave waited with him while I stayed with Tessa. I'm not sure why I didn't ask him to switch with me...since I definitely have a bit of a weak stomach around blood. They had to strap her into a straight-jacket type thing to keep her from moving too much as they sewed her up, and it was just so heart-wrenching to watch her screaming "mama!!" and pleading with her eyes for me to rescue her. I tried everything I could to comfort her -- singing, talking, humming, but she was obviously pretty miserable. She calmed down pretty quickly though once I was finally able to hold her and nurse her. It was actually sort of a surreal experience for me...since I too went through the exact same thing when I was 5 years old! I still remember laying on that hospital table as I received 8 stitches in my eyebrow after falling from the monkey bars at preschool! Luckily, Tessa won't remember this experience.

Her boo-boo looked pretty bad the first few days -- here she is on Day 2:

The stitches completely dissolved by Christmas Day (Day 5) and it's looking better every day. We followed up with the pediatrician today and all is well. I can't believe how much better it looks already! Day 9:

The pediatrician said it will probably have some redness for the next 6 months or so, and then it will start to turn white. And, since most of the scar is in her eyebrow, it shouldn't be too noticeable as she grows older. What a little trooper she is! And Calder has been a very caring big brother -- for the first few days after it happened, he would take a look at her scar and say "Awww...poor thing."