Jack's first ER trip

I realize that I probably freaked a bunch of people out after I posted "survived our first ER trip with a clean bill of health. Jack does not have a concussion and my blood pressure is back to normal. Whew." I apologize. 


There is a disclaimer to this story: Before you read this and assume that I am a hysterical first time mom, it's important to note that I rarely make a big deal about my son bonking his head. He does this on a very regular basis and I would say probably 4/7 days of the week has a bruise on his forehead from knocking it into something. I don't freak out when he bonks and he very rarely has a reaction to a bonk for more than a few seconds.


Here's what happened:


Brandon, Amy and Calvin all contracted the flu (or possibly some other virus), so I stayed home from school to tend Jack to hopefully avoid the spread of infection. Also, one of my classes was canceled, so it's hard to justify driving an hour for one class. Anyway, I was watching Jack and we were going about our usual day. Jack has been trying to walk hands free back and forth between the couch and the coffee table and most days he does fine. He's fallen head first into the table quite a few times and usually a kiss and a snuggle are good enough for him. 

Jack fell backwards onto the bottom of the coffee table (it has a shelf there) and also somehow managed to roll into the leg. He ended up with a giant bump on the back of his head, his ear split open and the pressure from his ear hitting his head left a little ear shaped bruise on the side of his noggin. He screamed bloody murder and I calmed him down and then saw the blood from his ear. This scared me more than the actual bonk did because my baby has never bled before. 


I called a bunch of people to see what I should watch for, including the doctor-who also said that cognitive tests on babies are unreliable and she'd end up sending me to the ER-all who said to keep an eye on him. He happily went back to playing and I decided to clear the coffee table off to move it. As I'm in the process of doing so, Jack stumbled and hit THE EXACT SAME SPOT again. This time, he didn't really cry; just a long sort of low, whiny wail. No tears and he kind of just sat there afterwards. Then he fell over while just sitting up and THEN HE TRIED TO GO TO SLEEP--keep in mind this was around 3pm, which is no where near when he takes naps. This scared the bejeezus out of me as I didn't know exactly how long to wait to let him sleep. Both incidents were about 20 minutes apart from one another and this was maybe 5-10 minutes after he hit his head the second time. I was having trouble waking him up so I called Todd to meet me at the ER.


I knocked on a couple of neighbors doors and no one was home. I was all set to drive myself and my now sleeping child to the hospital when one of my neighbors walked in the building. I asked her to drive us and she promptly did so. Jack was lethargic and unresponsive on the way to the hospital. I couldn't keep him awake. I was tickling him, blowing in his face and even smacking his little cheeks (not hard, just enough to kind of jiggle him) and by the time we got to the actual ER, he was out. He wasn't waking up when I pulled him from his carrier and when the triage nurses were examining him, he kept nodding off. This is not typical Jack behavior in a new environment. I have one of the perkiest, curious babies I've ever seen and this was unusual for him.


They triaged us right away and got us in for a CT scan. While we were in the hallway waiting for the scan, Jack FINALLY started to wake up and was alert enough to smile at me. I knew he was okay at that point but went ahead with the scan anyway just to be sure. 


Todd arrived before we got the results and by that time, Jack was flirting with a nurse and eating graham crackers and drinking some juice. He was happy to see his daddy and I was happy that he was finally awake. Other than one nurse telling my son how crazy I was and that I was overreacting, everyone was calm and very kind to me. 


THIS IS NOT THE END. 


Today, I was getting him ready to go look for new storage ottomans with trays (to get rid of the offending coffee table) I was in his closet to grab a jacket. I turned around for a few seconds and he smacked his mouth into the bottom drawer of his dresser. It bled. A lot. Mouth wounds tend to do this. He screamed and I had a brief meltdown about being a horrible mother that continuously puts her baby in harm's way. He was fine after a few seconds and even took a nap afterwards. This was his normal naptime and other than a brief moment where I thought he may have hit his eye, there was no thought of taking him to the ER.

I'm happy to say that Jack is perfectly fine. Here's a photo of his two new teeth for you all to enjoy. Todd is a wonderful photographer and chopped the top of his head off :) I'm not entirely sure if the dark spot between his teeth is where he hit or if he hit on his bottom gum. Maybe both; who knows?