Lacey's Latest Adventure

Yesterday was a quite the adventurous day for Lacey...

To preface the incident, I gotta tell you a couple things...

First off, Joe and I only have one car. In our nearly 10 years of marriage that has always been the case. We are too cheap to get a second car, though we are finding that it is quickly becoming a necessity. All in good time, I guess... ANYWAY- We only have the one car, and yesterday was Joe's day to have it. So I was home with the kiddo's and no vehicle. Not too big a deal, I am used to it.

Second, our good friends went out of town for a few days and I was watching their two sons all day yesterday. Their boys are the same age as my girls, and they get along really well so it was really not a problem to have the extra kids. If anything, it keeps my two girls occupied and keeps them from getting into trouble. Now- on to the story:

After the older two kids got home from school yesterday afternoon, I had them help the younger kids clean up the front room. With the promise of a snack after the room was clean. Lacey asked if the snack could be peaches (Really- they were nectarines, but Lacey doesn't know the difference). I told her sure- we could have peaches AFTER the room was clean. I then handed her a spoon that had migrated to the front room and told her to take it to the kitchen. I doled out a task to each of the other kids as well, and was changing Matthew's diaper when I heard Lacey start to scream... She came running into the front room with her hand COVERED in blood! Now- I am pretty proud of myself for not TOTALLY FREAKING OUT at that point. I grabbed a diaper wipe (not likely to stick to a cut, and cleaner than a towel) and cleaned her hand off. Problem was that I couldn't keep it clean. It was bleeding too much to uncover the wound. So I got a second diaper wipe (cause the first was already soaked through) and held it over her palm with some significant pressure. I then called Joe and told him that I was pretty sure Lacey needed stitches. I then went to the kitchen (with Lacey's hand firmly pressed in mine) and found a nectarine and a STEAK KNIFE sitting on the table. Seems she didn't want to wait for a clean front room before getting herself a "peach."

So, I called my next door neighbor (who happens to have a son Lilia's age as well) and asked if she could watch Lilia and the two boys while I took Lacey to get stitches. Matthew would come with me and Lacey. I then looked around and realized two very BAD things. One: Matthew's car seat was in my car. With Joe. CRAP. And two: So was my purse (including my insurance card). CRAP CRAP CRAP! My next phone call was to the boy's parents. They had left their car at home and I wanted to ask if I could borrow it to drive Lacey to Instacare. Well- I couldn't get them on the phone, but I DID have their house key so I went for a short walk to their house (with Matthew on my hip, a phone on my ear, and Lacey's hand still firmly grasped in mine). Once there I realized that THEIR baby car seat wasn't in the car (duh- they took it with them for their baby girl). Well, never mind that idea- besides, I can't drive while holding Lacey's hand, and if I let go of her hand, it would bleed profusely. UGH!

So my next phone call was to another good friend whose husband works odd shifts and he MIGHT be home. Sure enough, her husband was home and so I BEGGED her to come drive me and Lacey to the doctor, AND bring her baby seat for Matthew. She was quick to respond and was sitting in her car in front of my house 10 minutes later. (Have I ever mentioned that I have fantastic neighbors and friends? Cause I do...) While waiting for this friend to show up I got all the kids in their shoes and herded them off to the neighbor's house, managed to get shoes on myself AND Lacey (all one handed since I was still putting pressure on Lacey's hand).

We made it to the Instacare, and had to wait about 20 minutes for another poor kid who needed stitches on his head. Luckily, I had taken the kids here before so they already had my insurance info on hand and because of Lacey's previous stitches incident (the day Matthew was born), my insurance out of pocket premium was completely maxed out so I didn't have to pay anything. I guess you could call that the silver lining... Throughout the wait, Lacey kept insisting that she felt fine and wanted to take the diaper wipe off her hand. Um, nope... Once we got in to the procedure room, the nurse cleaned her hand up as much as possible, and put some numbing cream over the wound. As soon as the doctor appeared he got to work numbing her hand (which was by far the worst part- Lacey was screaming and trying to move her hand, but between the nurse and me she was pinned down pretty well). Once her hand was numb it was easy going. She needed three stitches, and will be able to get them removed in 10 days. The cut was really deep, but I guess kids heal pretty fast! The whole time they were stitching her up she was whimpering to me that she wanted a peach. Poor kid never did get one!

All in all, she is quite the trouper. It turns out that the doctor who stitched up her hand was the same doctor who stitched up her head back in January! He looked at her forehead (he had forgotten where the wound was) and was not thrilled with how badly it had healed, until I told him that the scar he was looking at was from her incident a few weeks ago with a boy and his hot wheels car, NOT from her stitches back in January. When I showed him that scar he was much happier with it's healing. Poor kid has mom's accident prone tendencies...

(You can see the beginning of her cut, but the stitches are covered up to keep them clean...)