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Monday, August 29, 2005

Five Stitches!

Natalie continually surprises Scott and me! She is growing so fast and becoming a beautiful little girl. But, she is still our baby and we would give our lives for her. If it was possible, I would have cracked my head open on Sunday night to keep her from having to go through it. Yes. You read me correctly. Natalie cracked her head open on Sunday night after church on a pew. She was running up and down the aisles between Scott and me (he was up front, I was in the back). During her last run she tripped halfway up the aisle and went face first into the corner of the pew bench.

Scott and I both rushed to her. I got to her first and scooped her up. She holds her breath when she's really upset and when I pulled her back to tell her to breath all I saw was blood. It was all over her face, gushing out of a huge gash in her forehead. I panicked and just kept yelling, "Blood!" over and over. I was bawling...uh! So traumatic even now!

We went running out of the sanctuary and I don't know what happened next. It was all a blur. Someone took her from my hands (Scott, I think) and layed her on the ground to try to get the bleeding to stop. I just stood there crying, not knowing what else to do. There were people everywhere praying with me, for us, for Natalie. I think I would have passed out if a great man of the church had not been there holding me up, speaking scriptures and prayers into my ear. All I remember are her screams and his voice.

We weren't able to completely stop the bleeding but we buckled her up and went to the ER. Scott dropped us off at the entrance and we ran in only to find the waiting room filled with a line to the door of people waiting to just check in. We must have looked a sight. Natalie had blood all over her face and covering her shirt. I had blood on my face and down my neck from holding her. When Scott joined us he had blood all over his shirt. We were a mess!

FOUR AND A HALF HOURS we waited. Ridiculous! Natalie's "laceration" was an inch long and above her left eye. It was a good 1/8 inch deep. Deep enough I could see raw tissue. Ah! My Baby! She got five stitches and fought the doctors and nurses every step of the way. So much so, they had to restrain her in a papoosa (sp?), which is a sort of body board for babies. They wrap these wide straps around her to bind up her arms and legs and then take a bed sheet and wrap her up again so that she looks like a caterpillar in a cocoon. Oh..She hated that thing! The nurse then held her head with both hands. All I could see was her left eye . Every other part of her was covered (except her toes). She still squirmed enough that the doctor had to try multiple times to get each stitch in.

During this whole time of the stitching Scott held his breath. You know what that means! Yep, he started to pass out. He did make it to the chair before falling over, but wasn't able to stand up for a while. The nurse said something to him like, "if you fall over, I can't help you. You'll just have to wait till we're done." It was funny at the time and helped to break the tension caused by Natalie's category 5 screams. Once the switches were all in and Natalie was back in my arms, the nurse brought Scott some ice chips. Poor baby!

I never want to go through that again! It was so draining on this little family! I have to admit though, we surprised me. We all stayed relatively level headed and kept our wits about us. Natalie was in high spirits once she could forget about where we were and what happened. She was even able to laugh and play while we waited. I think she has handled the whole situation better than any of us.

So here we are after we got home. From time to time while we were in the ER I commented to Scott that I wish I had our camera. So many precious moments to capture for the scrapbook. He said, "or for your blog!" He's right on the money with that one! So I took a bunch of pics once we got home and have continued to snap a few ever time I change her bandages. I will post the daily pictures as I can.

Please continue to pray for Natalie and for Scott and me. We are doing very well, although Scott has become even more protective of her. He won't let her run or go up and down the stairs. It is really cute. He is such a softy and such a fantastic Daddy!






2 comments:

  1. Oh My Gosh!!!! That poor baby! I'm so sorry that this happened to her!

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