Trauma!

Yesterday started out normal enough. Cereal, cleaning, naps. . .

After naps I decided I wanted to go to TJMaxx and Old Navy. I needed to pick Andrea up a birthday present, and I also wanted a pair of jeans and to look at shoes. I invited Andrea to come along. She met us there and we began shopping. Found some cute stuff, Andrea picked out a bag and I found a dress and jammies for Charlotte. We were almost done and the kids were getting pretty restless so I decided to get them out of the cart and let them walk around for a few minutes. I was looking at little girl stuff with Charlotte and Tucker right behind me. Suddenly I hear Charlotte scream. I turn around to see her bending over by one of the metal legs of a clothes stand. She has bonked her head I think. As I reach for her I see the blood start to drip. I scoop her up and see a huge gash in a vertical line in the middle of her forehead. I am on the verge of screaming and crying, but all I can do is stand there holding Charlotte with one arm and holding her skin together with the other hand. Blood is dripping down her face and Tucker starts to cry. Andrea is just a couple rows over and comes to see what's going on. She says "Are you okay, what do you need?"
I manage to say that I need to get her to a hospital or Urgent Care because she needs stitches. Andrea quickly whipped out her phone and called Trent and told him we needed him. Luckily he was at his office only a couple miles away. Someone who worked there finally comes over and asks what they can do. She gets a first aid kit and puts on some butterfly bandages. We go to the front of the store to wait for Trent. While I am using baby wipes to wipe the blood off of Charlottes face and arms and my arms the manager comes to find out what happened. I know she is worried about a lawsuit , but I clearly tell her it was nobody's fault and it was just a freak accident. She asks me to call and let her know when everything is okay. A helpful customer lets us know that there is a pediatric Urgent Care right around the corner. Trent arrives and Andrea is kind enought to take Tucker home with her and her new baby.
Tucker was so worried about his little sister. While we were sitting there he said, " Mom, I'm so sad that Charlotte got hurt. I forgot to save her."
I told him he did a great job and she will be all better after we have a doctor look at her.
We get to the place in no time and Charlotte is totally calm and happy to be playing with her dad. She was so excited about the fish tank.
Well, soon enought it was our turn and we were asked to hold some gauze soaked in some numbing stuff on her head for 15 minutes, so it won't hurt when they give her the shot of the real anesthetic before her stitches. They wrap her up in a blanket and stick her in what the doctor called a "papoose" or a baby straightjacket. I couldn't look when they gave her the shot, I turned to the corner and cried. But then I decided that I wanted Charlotte to be able to see my face so I came and stood by while Trent was kneeling beside her with his hands on her sides. The doctor had a hard time starting the initial stitch and with all the tugging and blood Trent got a bit nauseaus and asked me to come hold Charlotte. I was so surprised because it really takes a lot to get to Trent. Charlotte was screaming mad because she was being restrained and even managed to bust open the velcro so they had to rewrap her once. She ended up with 3 stitches topped with goop and the most colorful band-aid ever made. The doctor assured me she would only look worse the next couple days as she would surely bruise and swell and probably get 2 black eyes. And don't forget as with any head injury to check on her every four hours in the night to make sure you can wake her. As soon as she was in her Daddy's arms she was as happy as a clam. Since they had assured us she would feel nothing for a few hours until the anesthesia wore off we even joined Blake and Andrea for her birthday dinner at Sauce.
I had a hard time getting those scary, sad, bloody images from my head last night. However Charlotte is awake and cute and happy as can be! What a tough little girl!