Experienced Moms

My son experienced his first major wound today.  He was quite the trooper!

Some extended family came into town and the five related families (including us) got together to enjoy some time with one another.  This means that there were several moms in the room.  

My son enjoyed playing with the other kids, from three months younger to four years older, and bounced back and forth between the adults.  I gave him a bottle, but let him run around with it, as I knew he wouldn’t go to sleep with so many people around.  The living room where we congregated has a large couch forming a corner with two plush chairs, and a low round table with a marble top that serves as the coffee table.  

My son was running around the table with his bottle in his mouth when he tripped and fell.  He hit the table with his mouth (I think) and bounced onto the floor.  I immediately picked him up to console him, and another mother informed me that he was bleeding.  I soon discovered that the blood was pooling in his mouth, and another mother (a grandmother, in fact) quickly wet a washcloth with cold water for him to suck on.

He was definitely in pain, but though he was crying, he wasn’t flailing.  I tried to comfort him and get him to suck on the cloth, but he wasn’t interested.  I managed to wipe the blood away, but more covered the area in less than a second.  I saw that part of the wound was on the outside.  It didn’t occur to me that his teeth might have gone through his lip until one of the mother’s asked if they had.  My heart sank as I realized one of his teeth had.

She was calm and collected and told me that the same thing had happened to her son, and that as long as the teeth weren’t loose, he would be fine.  No, I didn’t need to take him to the emergency room; mouths heal very quickly, and babies heal even faster.  I just needed to stop the bleeding and clean the wound.

This was comforting, though I was a little unsure, as I know that deep wounds require stitches as a general rule.  However, I trusted this mom and saw the results from her child having been through it.  I found it difficult to keep pressure on the wound, since my son didn’t want the cloth on his mouth.  This made it take longer to stop the bleeding, which made me a little anxious.  I felt a little more pressure to take care of him correctly since we weren’t planning on going to the ER.

However, the bleeding did stop.  I felt very blessed having all those moms around me who had been through these kinds of things before.  They didn’t crowd me with advice, but gave suggestions when appropriate, and helped out with fetching things and entertaining my son to take his mind off of the pain.  I am so glad that I am not the first mom in the world, and that God has placed me in the company of so many other experienced moms.  They calmed my anxieties, showed me what to do, and saved my son from a trip to the ER that would not have been the most pleasant of his experiences.