Prior to Tuesday, I lived in a land where I thought Band-aids were the key to everything. Wounds tend to heal faster when they are covered with a cartoon character, right? And perhaps this is true in the land of little girls (those of you with young girls in the house will have to help me on this one) but in this house, Band-aids are something to be pulled off immediately. The tighter it is placed, the harder one tries to get it off. If shaking the hand fiercely does not get it off, the other hand gets involved with pulling it off. One does not rest until said Band-aid is off. (Okay, because this is my blog I will admit to one thing: the Band-aid's I used were not actually brand name...so really I should refer to them as "adhesive bandages" instead. But I thought perhaps people might recognize the name easier. And while I'm clearing the air, I should also say that the adhesive bandages I have are plain old brown and not covered with fancy cartoon characters. Perhaps if I had the fancy ones he would have just let it be?!)
This week, my mom planned to go out of town Tuesday afternoon, and that meant we had to go to Weight Watchers on Tuesday (instead of our usual Wednesday). I called her to see when she was going to come by and she said she was going to take a shower first. This sounded like a good idea, though I dislike taking showers when a little man is wide awake. But I have done it before, so I hopped on in. I shut him into my room and left the bathroom door open so he could talk with me while I showered. I have checked all the drawers before, to make sure there isn't anything dangerous for little boys, but as it turns out I didn't check thoroughly enough. I saw Riley walk out of the bathroom with the cradle for Jamaal's face razor and thought I saw a battery drop. While I am not okay with him playing with batteries, I did not think he would hurt himself in the short time I had left of my shower. A minute or two later I heard him making noise. He wasn't crying, but maybe whimpering is an appropriate descriptive word. I called for him to come to me, and in he came holding a razor blade in his hand. (You know the kind us ladies use on their legs, that has 4 different blades in one, only this is my husband's and used on his face). It turns out the cradle to Jamaal's razor has a secret place on the back that can store razor blades. I didn't realize this when I looked through the drawers.
I didn't want to panic him. So I crouched down low, held out my hand and calmly said "Can mommy have that please?" He handed it over, and once I had it in my hand I scooped him up and rinsed his hands, to assess the damage. Miraculously his only wound was a little cut on the top of his ring finger on his right hand. It appears that he scraped off a layer of skin, but a very very small area. Just a little smaller than a pink pencil eraser. But boy did that sucker bleed. I used a wash cloth with cold water on it, to put pressure on his finger, and after 15 minutes (of fighting him to let me hold it) it was still bleeding. It didn't seem to make a difference. I placed two different adhesive bandages only for him to take them off immediately (see above :) ). I was at my wits end. Since my mom was on her way, I called her to tell her my predicament, and wondered if she had any ideas. She told me she would bring some gauze and tape and we could try that. Now, mind you, I am completely naked. After I placed the first adhesive bandages, I jumped into the shower (which was left on of course) and rinsed the last bits of soap off of me. But my next priority was getting him to stop bleeding. At least it was my mother that came to help me and not someone else. :)
I passed him off to her when she finally arrived, brushed my hair, and got dressed. Then we proceeded to cover his "owie" with nonstick gauze and tape. As I was wrapping his finger I realized that he would just as easily pull it off as he did the adhesive bandages, so I decided to wrap his pinkie finger as well. Just to help make sure it stayed on. With the exception of one time when he was in the car, he left this bandage alone.
Later that afternoon I had a meeting to go to, so my FIL was in charge. I left the roll of tape and some gauze with him just in case it needed to be wrapped again. But I figured we wouldn't need it anymore.
Fast forward to the evening. Jamaal, Riley and I are in the living room. Riley went around the coffee table to his dad, and Jamaal swept Riley's feet out from under him to pick him up, but Riley wasn't expecting it and collapsed his torso forward. Hitting his forehead on the coffee table. We knew it was one that hurt, it has happened many a time. Jamaal looked at me with empathy for the little guy as he held Riley in front of him, comforting him. As he swayed side to side, I caught a glimpse of blood, and I sprung from the couch and ran to get a cloth. I said something like "Crap he's bleeding" or something, and that is when Jamaal turned Riley to look at him. Blood was all over the place. I came back with a washcloth and looked at Jamaal (who had Riley's blood all over his arm) and said "Let's get him in the bath." It just seemed like an easier place to assess him, because his clothes were getting messy. By the time we got him in the bathtub (and because I was worried about him, I went in too) it had stopped bleeding. I was surprised, because head wounds usually bleed the longest, but we lucked out this time. (I think it has something to do with the grape sized lump that formed under the cut...) After his bath I tried putting a butterfly bandage on it, but he didn't hold still, so it wasn't put on right. We didn't want to mess with him so I left it on him. Over that we put gauze and tape, and he actually left it alone pretty well.
We gave the little guy some Tylenol, a bottle, and he fell right asleep in my arms. After not having much of a nap, and all of the excitement, I wasn't surprised at all. I was glad that he was asleep when I put him in his crib, so I knew that he didn't mess with his bandage. He still has the butterfly on, because he won't let me take it off. So he looks pretty tough. :) (I started this post on Thursday...after Jamaal got home from work, he had a personal vendetta to remove the butterfly bandage, and after chasing Riley around the living room, it finally came off. Along with about 20 pieces of the kid's hair.) He didn't cry though, as he is tough as nails.
Thursday I went out and bought tape, gauze, wound glue, and a large first-aid kit. I'll be ready for the next adventure. (Though I would prefer none at all!)
