She's cute, all right. Sassy and full of spunk as well.
She's inquisitive, of course. There isn't much she wouldn't try.
Even if it's too big for her!See what we've been up to? Look below. Looks like a great way to spend a few weekends, doesn't it? Tom seems to be thinking so. He has been building a play area for the kids, complete with play structure. The swings are up now, along with the steps that go up to the platform. There's no slide attached yet, just a gaping hole at the end of the platform where it's supposed to go, about 5 feet up in the air.
Kaitlyn is a climber. There are few greater joys in life for her. She mastered the stairs within 2 weeks of moving to our new house at 13 months of age. The gates are mostly useless now, as she goes up and down unattended. So, when she saw a new set of stairs on the playset outside, it was a natural attraction. Up and down she went with her mother's hovering hands nearby. Kaitlyn got braver as soon as the steering wheel was posted up on the platform. She wanted to be there all the time. I got a little careless, I guess, as I was distracted by other things. Kaitlyn managed to climb up to the platform without me nearby. When I looked over, there she was smiling at me from 5 feet up. She walked over to the end of the platform and looked down. There was just hard, sharp gravel underneath. Tom hasn't had opportunity to put the wood chips down yet. Alarmed, I started towards her, warning her not to go to the edge. Does an 18 month old care about such silly things as a mother's warning? With a giggle, Kaitlyn reached above her and tried to get hold of the wood above the opening. I'm not sure what happened exactly, but in the next moment, her little body was falling swiftly to the hard, sharp ground beneath. I don't know if I'll ever forget the awful feeling I had in those first few moments. I still relive them when I close my eyes at night.
I screamed and raced towards her. I worried about head and neck injuries, but didn't know how to comfort her without moving her. I was panic stricken. I didn't know what to do! With a hand under her neck and head and another under her bottom, I carefully lifted her over onto the soft grass nearby. Once lifted, I noticed the rocks underneath were covered with blood. She was crying by this point, and I saw there was blood pouring from the back of her head. Now I was really beside myself. I dithered around trying to remember what to do and clutching Kaitlyn to me as though I could save her life and make her whole with the intensity of my love for her. Finally I got a washcloth and cleaned up the wound area. It was a bloody mess, but not as bad as it had first appeared. I tried to call Tom on the phone, but in my distracted state of mind, called my sister-in-law instead. I was packing the kids up as quickly as possible when I finally got ahold of Tom. We headed to the emergency room at the hospital as quickly as possible. I was still shaky and frightened. Kaitlyn was obviously hurt, but doing better. She didn't appear to have any broken bones or spinal cord injuries. But the head still concerned me. We got checked out at the ER. Fortunately, she is fine. After observation at the hospital and then a night of checking on her every 3 hrs, she didn't seem to have any other problems. Her head looks quite a sight, but fortunately didn't need any stitches.
She's learned to point to her head and say "ow." I feel a pang of guilt and pain every time she does. I've learned to hold her a little longer, love her a little deeper, and not trust her out of my sight! There is a thankfulness in my heart when I kneel to pray that this precious little life has been spared.
9 comments:
how scary! I've had those moments. Seems like an wound on the head will gush blood and when it's cleaned up, it isn't that bad of a wound. We've had Nolan gushing blood twice from the face area and both times I was scared to death of what we would find under all that blood. Neither time it was too serious. thank goodness!
p.s. glad she's okay!!
Definitely scary!!! I'm glad she's ok.
Brooke has a scar on the back of her head from when her brother pushed her off of a chair and onto the brick floor. It was a fairly small cut, but it bled and bled! She probably should have had a few stitches, but since it's on the back of her head I decided not to put her through it.
Little girls keep you running! :) My little girl has had more bumps and bruises than my boy ever has.
I just thought of that saying the other day that goes something like this: When you become a mother you walk around with your heart outside your body. So true, so true. When Joel was a baby he crawled to the edge of the basement stairs. I ran to grab him but he slipped out of my hands and went flying to the cement floor below. Luckily John (who was in the basement) heard me scream and ran to catch him before he hit.
And just yesterday Clayton split his chin open on the edge of a pool. Needed five stitches. I feel sick when I close my eyes and all I can see is him falling.
I'm so glad your little K is alright. Tell Dad to get that slide up there, quick!!
So glad she is okay! Fortunately, it will probably take you longer to heal than it will take her.
oh my, scary! glad she is okay. kids are pretty resilient! remember that one time you heard about a little baby girl that got her teeth knocked out? ;-)
This will only make her more strong and resilient! She is a trooper and will never remember it, but it will make for a good story later on in life. Little dare devils that we have in our lives!!!
thanks for the comfort everyone! Sounds like everyone has had a scare of some sort with their kids! Neisha, you're right -- the head sure bleeds like crazy!
Janelle and Meghan -- I agree, girls can certainly be dare devils! Jenny -- poor Clayton! Hopefully he's doing ok! Stitches are no fun, although him being a boy and all, maybe he thinks it's kind of cool?
Katrina -- you're definitely right!
She's already trying to get up there and repeat the experience.
Shannon -- funny that I was thinking about that very incident recently! It's amazing we mothers live through all this trauma in our lives :-)
It is really hard to watch them all the time. Anwyn, my youngest, had a nasty habit of walking one way and looking another. She has had stiches muliple times, but it didn't stop her and I couldn't walk everywhere with my hand in front of her head. I am still upset everytime she gets hurt and tell myself she'll grow out of it. She's 10 and an athlete, and had stiches again a couple of years ago running into a rock. I try to console myself by telling myself it is a love of life not life threatening.
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