I took these pictures of Claire walking into church the Sunday after Christmas because she just looked so sweet and cute, especially with the backpack and the sweater my mom knit for her.
Then, right after we got home from church, Stockton was helping Claire up the stairs and tripped at the top, launching her onto the landing and gashing her head open on that metal box along the floor. I saw it happen because I was in the kitchen and happened to be looking over there, and I heard the "thunk" of her forehead on the box and knew before I saw it that we were going to have to go to the emergency room. (There are some graphic pictures below...if you get squeamish, consider this your warning to skip the rest. Spoiler alert: she is fine!)
Austin had stayed after church to help with tithing, but luckily Jack and Sara were here visiting. While I tried to console a bleeding Claire with a GIANT gash on her head, I also tried to call Austin and put him on speaker phone because my hands were full. He couldn't hear a thing I was saying because Claire was screaming and Natalie was panicking and I wasn't really being coherent (I couldn't find the words to say "Claire hit her head and needs stitches," and all Austin got out of it was "gash" and "hospital" but he didn't know who was hurt or what I wanted him to do next. Sara grabbed the phone and more calmly explained the situation and told him we were coming to pick him up. Big Jack stayed behind with the other kids and I held Claire while Sara drove the van. We grabbed Austin and went to the hospital, where they told us only one parent could go in due to covid (of course, gahh). Austin took Sara home and then came back to the hospital to wait in the car.
Poor precious little baby was SO BRAVE. She hated anything that any of the nurses did to her, but she just buried her head into my shoulder and tried not to make eye contact with anyone. Eventually she fell asleep, wrapped up in her favorite Tortilla blanket. I asked the nurse to cut off her sweater because Claire was getting too hot and it had a lot of blood on it anyway, so RIP those cute pom poms.
They gave her Tylenol and then put a gel anesthetic into and on her wound. They scared me because I was in no way supposed to let the gel drip onto her eye because apparently "it doesn't react well," so I watched it like a hawk while she slept. 30 minutes later she woke up, right as the nurses came in to do the actual stitches. They swaddled her like a baby and laid her at the end of the bed, with one nurse holding her head and the other nurse holding her body while the PA did the stitches. I was right next to her head on one side, consoling her and holding up youtube videos on my phone. She cried softly for two minutes and then took a big, shuddering deep breath as if to calm herself, and then peacefully watched the videos or looked at me for the next 20 minutes while they worked. It was miraculous to watch my 1-year-old react like that, and it was one of the most clear times in my life that I know prayers were answered and a Priesthood blessing impacted the outcome of the situation. (Austin gave her a blessing right before we went in to the hospital, and we texted our families asking for prayers and they poured in. Very very grateful.)
Another proof that we were watched over on this day was that other than a scar on her forehead, Claire doesn't have any lasting damage. If she had gashed her head any lower, she could have had issues with her eyebrow or facial muscles. The PA told me afterwards that she didn't want to scare me but Claire's wound went all the way down to her skull and they did stitches in three or four separate layers, 9 inside that dissolved and 9 outside that needed to be removed in 5 days. TO HER SKULL! I felt so grateful that our little girl was protected and safe. Her gash was about 2.5 centimeters long. They said that technically this was considered an "infant concussion" because of how hard she must have hit her head to get a gash that deep, so we were supposed to be careful to not let her bonk her head for the next week. (Not an easy task for a toddler!)
Look how calm she is as they finished her stitches and cleaned the wound! It was amazing. She was like that almost the whole procedure.
They gave her a little stuffed animal and she was happy to be unwrapped and have some time with Tortilla on the bed. Austin had gone home for a bit since it was taking longer than we expected, so I called him and he came and picked us up. Claire was SO happy to see him and it was so cute. She was completely her normal happy self from then on - no tiredness, no pain, no crying...miracles!!
We got home and Jack and Sara had made lunch for us, which is just so thoughtful and THEM, and all of a sudden I was both starving and exhausted from the ordeal. Claire had some eggs with Daddy and wanted to take a nap a little later. I rented a movie for the kids downstairs and Austin and I dozed upstairs while Jack and Sara went grocery shopping, and it was very peaceful. Claire woke up happy and Jack and Sara made us an amazing nacho bar dinner. Very very very grateful for them - it's no coincidence that this happened while they were here to help. Their calming and fun influence on our kids and in our house really helped everything feel okay.
Her stitches, two days later...
And four days later...
And three weeks later ^^
And today, without even a scab. I feel sad when he see her perfect skin and face marred by this scar, but also so grateful that it healed and won't impact her health or well-being anymore. She was such a champ about everything.
I forgot to mention that Goose, Austin's best friend who is doing his med school residency in Utah, took Claire's stitches out when we were on vacation with the Poulsens in Utah.
I'm pretty impressed that we lasted over 8 years without any of our kids getting stitches, and I hope that this is the isolated incident!
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