One might think that with me having 6 kids, chances are pretty good at least one of them has gotten stitches at some point. Nope -- this past Monday was the first time.
The child who holds the dubious honor:
(excuse the messy face)
Blood everywhere, not a moment I'd like to relive. Once we'd cleared it off his head, we could see the laceration wasn't really that big. It's just that there was a small area in the center that gaped. Ewwww. It continued to seep through the butterfly bandages we applied, so off to the doctor we went.
I arrived at the doctor's office expecting yelling, squirming, tears.
However, to my surprise, he handled himself very maturely. He proudly showed his "owie" to the various assistants, nurses and doctors who asked. (Our regular doctor was on his way out, so he was able to pop in for only a moment and another doctor did the actual stitching).
They had Zane lay down on the table and wrapped him in what they termed a papoose. He hardly protested that his arms were glued to his sides and he was immobilized. I held his little fingers that peeked out under the wrapping. The nurse held his little head still while the doctor gave him the numbing shots. Brenna and I watched, cringing, while the long needle poked him. I know I braced for the scream. Silence, silence...the doctor moved on to the next shot. Finally a matter-of-fact "Ouch" from Zane.
After the 3rd or 4th such shot, he finally whimpered. Then she was done with that and he was numb. He lay so still while she stitched, I finally asked, "Are you okay, honey?" To which he gave the standard answer from 2year-olds everywhere,"No."
During the 2nd stitch, he fell fast asleep. He snoozed on through the 3rd stitch and we finally shook him gently awake after removing the papoose. He looked around, disoriented and offered a sleepy smile. Who knows what he thought. Did he remember where he was? That he'd just gone through his first "surgery"?
Maybe not. However, he did remember the promised lollilop. Orange, as requested. And off we went.
Today we had the stitches removed. We did the papoose again, and again he just offered a few casual remarks. "Ouch." "That hurt". The nurse was very quick, and we were done.
This time he received a popsicle. Again, orange.
And thus was our 1st experience with stitches. Relatively painless. Except for mom. =)
