One of many...

...trips to the Emergency Room, I'm sure!

So, one week ago today, (I know...I'm way late at posting) my sweet baby boy had his first visit to the ER! To be honest, he has been walking for 5 months and I am surprised we have made it this long with as active as he is, and the fact that this kiddo has NO fear! So here's how it went down...

That morning, the little man fell and bit his tongue. Greg and I ran him over to the sink and the bleeding stopped relatively quickly with the use of some wet paper towels we were stuffing in his mouth. We looked in his mouth and could see the cut. The cut was just a red line, very flat, and just on the top of his tongue...nothing down the side or through the bottom. So off he went to nap! He woke up and had lunch...no problems...wasn't fussy! We played and went through our day. As I prepared him for round 2 of napping, I looked in his mouth...no changes. The cut was still flat and did not appear deep. He woke up from his nap, played, and then came dinner!

Greg does this awesome new trick when he is done eating. He sticks out his tongue and spits out whatever is in his mouth. As dinner came to close, he stuck out his tongue to spit out his food...and that's when we saw it. His red lined, flat cut had turned into this massive gash and part of his tongue was sticking up and just kind of flapping out. GROSS! So....off we headed to the ER thinking, "wow, that's deep...we may need stitches!"

We arrived to hospital at 6:30ish...chilled in the waiting room until about 8ish, and then headed back to our room! He did GREAT in the waiting room...he just let Greg or I carry him around and we just walked with him. He even got some stickers from one of the nurses and these kept him amused for at least 30 minutes! We headed back to the room, and our nurse checked him out, and told us it may be a little bit until we saw the doctor. And by a little bit...she must of meant an hour and 45 minutes!! At this point...it's around 8:30 and BEDTIME! He let me rock him...but was so fussy, then he would let Greg rock him, get fussy, and we kept switching over and over for what seemed like FOREVER!! The doctor finally came in close to 10 and our fussy boy turned on his charm for her. He acted like a perfect angel, and was such a FLIRT! The doctor checked his tongue out, and came to the conclusion that stitches were not needed since the cut was not down the side or all the way through the bottom. She told us that we needed to just give him Motrin to help with the pain, and cold things like popsicles or ice cream to help with the swelling. (He even got a popsicle that night at the ER that the nurse brought him...she might as well have been his new best friend!) She informed us that the we just needed to keep an eye on it for infection, but it should begin to lay flat and heal itself within a week.

I am so glad he did not have to get stitches, but was irked to have spent 4 hours in the ER for what seemed like common sense. Oh well...better safe then sorry! So off we went back home for a bath (had to get all the hospital germs off) and bedtime! It has been a week, and his mouth looks great. The redness is gone, and it only swells the tiniest bit toward the end of the day. It lays flatter and grows together more and more each day! Greg was such a champ, and took his injury like a real big boy! :-)