A Scary Sunday

I am home today cleaning- toliets, laundry, floors, dishes- and I am SO HAPPY. Truly. Not even a tad bit of sarcasm, because? Well, because this weekend we had a HUGE scare at our home and I have been reminded of just how much I love my simple, non-eventful, toilet scrubbing life.

It all started Sunday morning around 9:30. The kids slept late so I was trying to make Naomi a quick breakfast before we all got ready for church. Reuben was upstairs with Lincoln getting ready to bring him downstairs. Then, as I handed Naomi her cup of milk, I heard a resounding THUNK from upstairs.

Any of you parents know that when you hear a thunk you don't move right away. Perhaps a book has been dropped, or lamp knocked over, or a shoe thrown.  As Reuben was upstairs I didn't react right away. Until I heard the shriek come from my 3 month old son. 

It was horrendous. I could tell immediately two things: something had hurt him and I needed to move fast. I abandoned Naomi to her milk and raced upstairs to find Lincoln shrieking in Reuben's arms.

"What happened?!" I almost whispered the words, afraid of the answer.

Reuben explained that he had been holding Lincoln with one arm and with the other was reaching for something off of the top of the wardrobe closet in our upstairs hallway. At exactly the moment Reuben reached, Lincoln lunged backwards and Reuben, who desperately tried to catch him, could not. Lincoln fell backwards and hit his head on our carpeted floor.  I immediately began to cry as I reached for him, remembering the loud thud and wincing at the picture of my baby's head hitting our floor.

I took him downstairs, checked on Naomi, and then searched Lincoln's head for bruising or bumps. A HUGE goose-egg had emerged, and I panicked.  

"We're taking him..." I firmly decided. Three minutes later we were out the door, Naomi still in her pjs, my hair looking less than stellar. It's funny what you absolutely don't care about in times like these.

After a very long wait (yeah- what about "Emergency Room" means make the baby with the huge bump on his head wait forever?) Lincoln and I headed to radiology to get a CT-Scan of his brain. The results would show that he had suffered a fracture to his skull and had two small bruises on his brain. My mind swam, my stomach turned to jelly.  The doctor who gave us this news said that his injuries were not life threatening and that they would heal on their own, nonetheless, they wanted to keep him overnight to do some observations. I couldn't understand what about fracture on a skull and bruising on the brain was non-life threatening, but I really wanted to believe him.

After a quick phone call, my friend Kendra came to pick up Naomi from the hospital (how blessed we are to have such good friends, especially for times like these). We made phone calls to our family and other friends requesting prayer, then got admitted into our room for what was the longest day and night of our lives.

I was on edge most of that time, watching his every move. After a few hours of which Lincoln was very upset and even inconsolable at times, I requested some Tylenol for him. That really seemed to help him feel more comfortable and as the day went on my little boy started acting like himself again. He smiled and cooed and laughed and acted as if nothing at all had happened. Oh the relief that came with that first smile.   

After some burgers from Burger King (thanks Christine!), hospital beef stew, three tacos, tiny cups of juice, a million check-ups for my little one, just as many prayers, sleeping on and off all through the night, and a dozen recurring panic attacks, we were discharged from the hospital. Lincoln had passed all of his "tests" with flying colors. They scheduled a follow-up appointment with our pediatrician who said he was doing great and had no concerns.  We were told it would take 4-6 weeks for his skull to heal, but that we didn't need to do anything different or special. 

I was, and still am, a bit shell-shocked. How quickly a morning can change from the mundane to the eventful. 

I am so thankful to all of our family and friends who responded with prayers, food, kind words and hugs. 

And now we are home. Our son is playing with his father, our daughter is taking a nap and I am taking a quick break from cleaning. Simple, uneventful, perfectly sweet. 

And for the record? I'll take cleaning toilets over admitting my children into the hospital any day.

Counting my way to a thousand blessings:

72. doctors

73. nurses

74. friends there at the drop of a hat to take care of your daughter or bring food even when you don't feel like eating

75. the comforting hugs from my parents

76. his smile

77. his laugh

78. dinner from a friend

79. prayers 

80. emails saying "we care"

81. toilets