Not that sweet little nose!!

Yesterday Will, Dane and I went for a walk. We got home a little bit before 6 and the baby was hungry. I have been pumping and bottle feeding him (another story - but all he wants to do when I nurse him is sleep, which makes for long and frequent feedings. And that becomes difficult with a 2 - almost 3 year old to take care of as well.) Anyway, I was getting Dane's bottle ready and Will was playing on the stroller. We have a Bob Jogger stroller which I LOVE; we have gotten so much use out of it. It's a 3-wheeled stroller and Will climbed in it on his hands and knees. Next thing I know I hear a scream. As a mother I have become accustomed to all sorts of different screams and cries. When I heard this particular scream my heart literally stopped because I knew that scream - it meant something was seriously wrong. I whipped around and to my horror, I see that the stroller had tipped backwards, Will was face down on our tile floor with his hands at his sides and the handlebar was across the back of his head pinning him down. He had crawled to the back of the stroller and peeked his head out underneath a flap that hangs down when the seat is reclined. As the stroller tipped back he had fallen about 2 feet face first onto our tile floor. I ran over to him and as I lifted him up I was terrified to see what his face looked like. His nose was immediately swollen and bleeding. I picked him up in one arm and had the baby in my other. I ran us all to the bathroom, grabbing my phone on the way. Luke was sleeping at his dad's house because he had worked all night the night before. I called him and thru both boys screaming told him to COME HOME. I eventually got us to the couch, was holding Will and trying to calm him down while feeding the baby with my other hand. I also got some frozen berries from the freezer and was trying to ice his nose but he wasn't having any of that. After what seemed like an hour Luke finally got home and we decided this was definitely worthy of a trip to the ER. We also decided that the baby had no business sitting around in the ER especially since you never know how long it's going to take. This was the first time (of many to come, I'm sure) that I was so very torn between my boys. I knew the best thing to do was for me to stay at home with the baby and for Luke to take Will to the hospital. But all I wanted to do was be with my "baby" and take care of him. I packed Will a "things to do" bag and waited until they were headed to the door and then let the tears flow. At the ER they wanted to do a cat scan but Will wasn't having it. They determined that he had broken his nose, straight on. That means that it's not crooked, so it didn't have to be adjusted. They also determined that he hadn't cracked his eye socket bone or else there would have been blood pooling which there was not. They were pretty confident that a broken nose was the only damage, so fortunately they decided that they would not need to restrain him to do a cat scan. After hearing that was a possibility (restraining him) I was actually glad Luke was there with him because I know I would have been a wreck if I would have had to watch him be restrained like that. Anyway, after a new truck, 2 grape popsicles, a coloring book and some other fun things, they were headed home - but not without a stop for an ice cream dinner first.

During the night I woke him up every 3-4 hours to make sure he was coherent and not confused, vomiting, etc. which would indicate a concussion. Today we followed up with a visit to his pediatrician who said the same thing - likely just a broken nose. He said that in young kids the nose is mostly cartilage and will probably heal just fine. I hope so - I don't want him to have the broken nose bump like his Momma.

Will was so brave. After he calmed down when it first happened he didn't really get upset about it at all unless someone was trying to touch it. He has a little bruising on his nose in a few different places and it is still really swollen. He will likely get more bruising and possibly two black eyes. He also has a knot on his forehead that will probably bruise as well. This is Will's 2nd trip to the ER - the first being when he bit (almost all the way through) his tongue when we were in Florida. And like usual, he amazed me at how brave he his. He sure is a tough little guy.