Ballew-Berries: First ER Visit

Tyler is the winner for the first ER visit! It took us almost 28 months for our first time so I think I should count myself as one lucky Momma. On September 2, 2012 I was in my bathroom getting ready for a special date with my husband...many of you will recount this as a special day in Jeremy and my lives. Jeremy was there with me and we were talking about how we were to drop off the kids and what we would do with our free time. All of the sudden we heard screaming from the playroom. I didn't even flinch because it was not an uncommon scream. Actually, it sounded to me like a "he took my toy" scream, but Jeremy went running to the rescue. As I hear Jeremy shouting an "uh-oh" in adult language I then become more action oriented. I'm coming out of the bedroom and I see Jeremy carrying Tyler towards me with blood streaming down his face. I make a u-turn and gather some kleenex and dampen them with water. I direct Jeremy to set Tyler down on my chair and tell him to go get a towel. I quickly realize this is a lot of blood, luckily for me it was not my first experience with gushing blood. Jeremy came back with a paper towel, my response was no--a real towel we have to stop the bleeding. Before I start the dramatics let me jump to the ending, three stitches; I don't want to scare anyone here! Jeremy was a bit more uneasy than me because this was his first experience with more than the common scratch. We applied pressure and stopped the bleeding. I was able to finish straightening my hair before we set forth on what ended up being quite the date night! We called Mike and Erin and informed them we had a delay but would be there to drop off the kids. Neither Jeremy or I really realized that stitches would be required. As we drove to M and E's we realized it was still bleeding because Tyler had decided to rip off the band-aid of course. So we arrived and asked for them to take a look...the automatic response was--that needs stitches; well POOP! So much for a relaxing night, I was so close to a Gloria's patio dinner with ritas! Instead we booked it to the urgent care center to see if they could help. After arriving the doctor came out and said we needed to go to the ER. So off we went into uncharted territory. I wasn't happy about venturing into a hospital waiting room and packed as little as possible, diaper bag with lovie, hot wheels car, tractor book, a couple diapers and wipes. Tyler was so excited, he wanted to touch everything, I cringed each time he touched something new. We sat down after filling out the paper work and first tried to entertain him with the car. It made it about 4 minutes before falling to the floor. Next we tried the book, this lasted a bit longer because we were able to catch it a couple times before it made contact with the germ infested floor! Next he started getting cranky so we brought out the lovie. This lasted all of 30 seconds, so I was out of options. We had to use something dirty, I swear I'm such a germ-a-phobe and this was not easy for me! So we were called back after about 25 minutes to start our paperwork process. I was doing good answering all the questions then he asked so what exactly happened?...My response, "Well we weren't in the room, but I think he tripped and hit his eye on the toy chest." There it was, the silent pause as he looked up at me and Jeremy to determine what kind of parents we were...don't get me wrong I understand but still! I quickly added that he is a triplet and this was our first visit to an ER and they were almost 2 1/2. The tone warmed back up after this comment; but really I have no idea what he wrote about us on that form! We were then chauffeured to our private room and the very nice nurses began the process of prepping Tyler for his stitches. He got some medicine and they numbed his forehead. We had to wait another thirty minutes for all this to start working it's magic. Luckily, we only threw our lovie on the floor about 27 more times before he was out of it enough to not notice it was gone! Soon enough the nurse and doctor were in to put in our stitches. They swaddled Tyler in a sheet and began their sewing. I won't lie, after not eating dinner, (thanks Tyler!), I almost passed out watching this! This process was very quick and Tyler was a CHAMP! They said that he was really, really good for the whole experience, I have no idea where he would get this from! After a few minutes we were on to the fun part of the visit--eating a popsicle...I was told some parents opt to skip this part...REALLY!?! All in all, it wasn't my best Anniversary ever, but it will definitely be on up there in the memorable category I'm sure! Thank you Mike and Erin for all your help as we ventured thru this crazy time of parenthood!

This is sweet Tyler on the way to the ER. It's hard to see, but he has a band-aid over the cut.

This is "doped" up Tyler. When we got back to Mike and Erin's I set him down after we walked in the house. When he began stumbling backwards I realized he needed to be held for the night!