Connell's First Stitches

Friday night was very eventful at our house. JayC had just left for work at about 6:30pm, and I was settling in for a quiet, uneventful evening as usual when he works nights. I was sitting on the couch talking to my mom on the phone, and Connell was watching a cartoon, while sitting on a kitchen chair he had dragged into the living room. All of a sudden, he got off the chair and pulled it on top of himself. I was surprised he did that and asked what he was doing, but then he started to cry and I pulled the chair off him and saw blood all over his face. There was so much blood, I couldn't tell where it was coming from at first. I carried him into the kitchen to grab a towel to stop the bleeding, and quickly saw that there was a large gash in his forehead, literally squirting blood. I've never seen so much blood! It was pretty terrifying, but I was luckily able to keep calm for Connell's sake, cuz he was pretty traumatized by all the blood too. I was able to stop the bleeding finally, and I was blessed to be able to get JayC on the phone right before he arrived at work to tell him he needed to come home. I could tell the gash was definitely going to need stitches. So he called his work and told them he had an emergency, so he was able to come home and take us to the emergency room for Connell to get stitches. Connell calmed down pretty quickly after I was able to get us mostly cleaned up and fell asleep with me holding him. I learned later I probably shouldn't have let him go to sleep cuz he could have had a concussion, but thankfully he was fine.

We got to the hospital at about 7:30pm and they got us into a room pretty quickly. Connell was acting very normal, although very hyper, once we were waiting in the room and they had decided they would do stitches. Then came the worst part: the doctor and his assistant put Connell in a sheet that was like a straight-jacket thing so he couldn't move, stuck a needle in his forehead to numb it, and then stitched it up. JayC and I were holding Connell down so he couldn't move around, and he was so scared! I think that's the worst feeling a parent has to ever feel. Seeing my child in pain was just terrible! Of course he survived, but it was just sad to have to see him go through that. They wrapped his head up to help with the bleeding. The doctor said he must have hit a capillary artery and that's why it was bleeding so much. It's likely he'll get black eyes before it gets better. Poor guy! You can see in the picture with his stitches that he's pretty swollen, and I'm sure it's going to get alot worse! I just hope it won't scar too bad and that it won't happen again anytime soon! So here are the pictures to prove it. I must say I'm pretty proud of myself for being able to be so calm and take care of things even though I'm 38 weeks pregnant!


At home before the hospital. It was a lot worse than it looks.


Right after getting stitches.


At home after the hospital.


Just a few minutes ago today. He's pretty fascinated with looking at his "owie" in the bathroom mirror. At least it doesn't hurt him anymore.