frankenstein stitches

One morning before school, the boys were playing a little too rough with their baby sister (as usual) and somehow she collided with the corner of a very hard wooden toy chest. I heard a huge thunk from the other room and waited for the inevitable wail...unfortunately this one was worse than usual. There was blood streaming from FK's forehead and panic filled the room as I barked orders to get a cloth to stop the bleeding. I wish I could say that I remained calm, but I may have been a little short with my boys at that moment. Once the bleeding stopped and she calmed down with a TV show, I called the doctor's office and immediately started choking up while telling the receptionist what happened. I'm such a baby!

Anyway, I asked W. to get his shoes on because I was planning to drop him off at school on the way to the doctor and I noticed that he was completely green and moaning, "I don't feel so well." Poor guy was traumatized by all the blood and panic...and likely felt guilty about horsing around with his not-even-two-year-old sister. So I gave him a snack and hauled all three of my kids to get her head stitched up.

We arrived at the doctor's office and I had tears in my eyes trying to stay composed while Flora was chatting with everyone saying, "I got big owie!" pointing to her head. The kids perked up considerably (begging to play Angry Birds on my mobile phone, their newest obsession) and we snapped a few shots while waiting...and then the fun began.

FK looking pretty terrified at the doctor with the sewing needle.

This is the only 'before' shot i took and doesn't do the injury justice.

FK is very strong-willed and has an incredible set of lungs so the 6 stitches took a very looooong time (it felt like days, but it was probably only about 15 minutes). After the litocane injections she couldn't feel anything, but she was so steamed about being held down - by yours truly, of course - that it was torture trying to keep her wiggly body still while listening to her constant high-pitched shriek the entire time. Flora was begging and sobbing and screaming while I was trying to sing, tell stories and do anything to unsuccessfully distract her. At one point I looked up at the assisting nurse (holding FK's head) and saw that she was clearly upset and staring at the ceiling while tears were welling in her eyes. FK didn't calm down or stop screaming for one second! Even the doctor sewing her up was getting irritated by Flora's thrashing on the last couple stitches and kept firmly saying 'stop it'.

It was truly horrible.

So we survived the stitches...barely. It took her a long time to stop sobbing and calm down.

AND it looks like she'll have a scar across her forehead her whole life. Miraculously, the doctor did a decent job, despite the obvious obstacles, and we're hopeful that the scar won't be too noticeable.

"cheese"

Oh well, she needs to have a reminder of her days growing up with two big brothers, right?