Our first stitches

I knew the day would come...I had thought about how it would go and played it out in my mind dozens of times.  It would be dramatic, traumatizing, and just terrible.  I didn't know who it would be, but I knew it was going to happen someday.  And that day was yesterday.

We went to the kids last day of swimming lessons yesterday morning.  I usually take Emery swimming while they are in class, but yesterday I wanted to watch their class and then we would all stay after and swim for a while.  We got in the pool and were having lots of fun...we went around the lazy river, the kids went down a few slides, Emery fell under the water a few times so I had to help her up.  Then Zac told me he was going on the little slide again.  The next thing I know he is screaming.  So I run over and was worried maybe he cracked his chin opened when he fell.  I looked and didn't see any blood so I was mostly just frustrated that he would be trying to climb up the slide.  Then I noticed a tiny bit of blood and told him to look up and saw that he had a pretty deep cut on his chin.  So I got him and Emery out of the pool and put our towel on his chin.  I didn't really know what to do...I wasn't really panicked, but I didn't know what to do.  Just then a nice lady that saw what had happened came over and asked if she could help.  I just asked her to look at the cut to see if she thought it needed stitches...she said yes and told me where I could go since I didn't really know where there were any urgent care places around.  So I went and asked a lifeguard if they had a band aide we could have for the drive just so we didn't get blood on his clothes.  The lifeguard was so nice and gave the kids suckers.  :)

So we drove to the urgent care and got right in.  The nurse there was SO nice.  She offered more suckers to all the kids, she brought us all heated blankets since we were still wet and in our swim suits, and she just knew exactly what to say to Zac.  I loved her.

 Here we are at the urgent care about to take the bandaid off.

 They put a numbing gel on his chin for about 30 minutes which made it completely numb.  He didn't need any shots or anything.  It was so nice!

 Here are Sadie and Emery enjoying the coloring books they had there and eating their suckers.

 Then they turned on Finding Nemo for the kids (this was after Emery pushed a button on the tv and the workers could not figure out how to put it back on the show that it was on before.  ha ha.) 

 Here is Zac all ready to get his stitches.  Like I said before, the nurse was so great.  She cleaned off his cut with a little syringe type thing that she called a squirt gun.  She filled it with water and squirted it at the ceiling and made it "rain" on us.  Zac liked that.  And she even let him bring it home.  She also called his stitches "blue whiskers" which made us both laugh.  

 When Zac was done, the nurse gave us three coupons for free ice cream at a place right across the street.  So of course we stopped on the way home and got some ice cream.  

And here is Zac with his "blue whiskers"  

When I think back on yesterday, I don't even really think about Zac getting a huge cut on his chin.  I think about the great day we had.  I am so thankful that there were so many people that were so nice and helpful and helped make our first experience with stitches so wonderful.  I mean, really it was great.  I know that there was Heavenly help involved because I never even had the chance to panic or get scared.  Zac cried a lot at the pool because it hurt, but mostly because he wanted to keep swimming.  ha ha.  Also, it was a blessing that it happened after his last swimming lesson...because now he can't swim for five days.  Just another tender mercy in this experience.  So our first stitches didn't go at all like it always had in my head.  It was a very pleasant experience.  Not traumatic at all. And I am writing all this down so that maybe when it happens again (which it probably will at some point...hopefully not soon...) I know I can handle it.  And also if someone who reads this is able to help someone else in a situation similar to this, don't hesitate!  It really does help!  :)