So this is what happened to my boy...

Last night was my company's Christmas party at a nice restaurant in a fancy downtown area of Houston. I had gotten the girl next door to babysit the kids for us. She's a kid at heart and loves to play and the kids adore her. DH and I were excited and looking forward to a nice dinner out (the entree choices were rack of lamb, Chilean sea bass or filet mignon -- yum!).

We were about a block away from the restaurant when DH's cell phone rang. He saw it was a call from our house so he immediately called back. The babysitter told him that B and A were running around the family room and kitchen and she pushed him. He fell into the corner of the bar and split his forehead open. She said it was deep and would need stitches. So we turned around and headed immediately home.

I called the restaurant and asked to leave a message with the president of the company I work for saying that we had had an emergency and would be unable to attend. Then I emailed my boss and the president from DH's blackberry explaining the emergency.

When we arrived home, our babysitter and her mom were here. A was sitting in the mom's lap and he was so calm. We looked at the gash and I felt sick to my stomach. It was really deep and would definitely require stitches. And it would take a lot more than the 4 stitches A got when he split his eyebrow open the day before his first birthday.

Before leaving the house, DH grabbed a piece of pizza (we had ordered pizza for the kids to eat). I figured we'd be in and out so quick that we could head back to the restaurant for the entree or dessert course. However, we quickly learned that was not going to be the case. The ER waiting room was packed and when we registered, we were told there was a 2-3 hour wait.

A finally fell asleep on my lap just after I sent DH out to get me some dinner (at 9:30pm; we arrived there before 8). So instead of rack of lamb I had a Sonic chili cheeseburger for dinner. Instead of a whiskey sour at the cocktail hour I had a limeade. Oh well. A napped quite a lot while we waited to be seen. It was after midnight before we finally headed in to the triage area. From there we were immediately escorted to an ER room where he again fell asleep.


I had warned the paramedic and LPN that he needed to be in a papoose for his last stitches. They said they would be able to deal with him. They stood him up and put his arms in a pillowcase behind his back; it looked like he was wearing a cape. Then they swaddled him in a sheet and lay him on the bed. He fell immediately back to sleep. He was completely fine until the LPN put the drape over his face. Then A lost it, yelling that he couldn't see. The paramedic had to really hold his head still, while DH held his torso and I held his legs down. He fought every single stitch. And he yelled during every single stitch. All fifteen of them. He got four internal stitches and eleven surface stitches.

Once they were finished, A gave us both big hugs. The poor paramedic shook his arms to get the blood flowing in them again, and we overheard the LPN say, "I need a 10 minute break after that!" That's my boy.

We arrived home after 5 hours in the ER (and 6 hours from the time he fell) and spoke to the babysitter who was still very apologetic. I feel so badly for her. We know it was not her fault. Our kids know that we do not allow running in the house for this very reason; perhaps now they'll listen to us... HA! The babysitter actually asked, "Are you sure?" when I went to pay her. I hope she'll sit for us again. Heck, she did everything right. She called us and got her mom to help her out before we got home. It makes me feel even more comfortable having her watch the kids, in fact.