To put it bluntly, toddlers are not graceful.  They’re still working out that thing called balance, and haven’t mastered how to regain one’s balance if they start to lose it.  Hell, I’m an adult and I still haven’t quite figured that one out yet.  So, take some twirling in circles,  and throw good ol’ gravity into the mix?  And a nearby, immobile, hard object? Well, that is just a recipe for disaster.

Forehead, meet the dresser handle.  Dresser handle, meet the forehead.

There was much blood, and much crying (from both the Kiddo AND me).

There was a three hour visit to the emergency room, and three or four stitches.  And then a popsicle and a small puppy finger puppet (from the doctor) for being such a trooper!  She didn’t cry during the stitches at all, and held still just like we asked her to do.  Yay for topical anesthetic, and yay for a very calm little girl!  And a super doctor and nurse, to boot.  And thanks to her grandma for sitting with us at the ER in sheer boredom waiting those long three hours, helping me keep the Kiddo entertained.

I am so spent.  I hope to never have to repeat what happened today ever again.  But I imagine that is just wishful thinking… if she inherited my clutziness, and can’t find her gracefulness, well, I fear something like this will probably happen at some point again, but hopefully in the way way distant future.  But I can still hope that distant future never comes and she turns out to be as graceful as a swan, right?  One can dream…

Sometime in the middle of the night, the Kiddo came into our room and got into bed on my side.  I was aware of this, because when she first got in bed, she laid completely ON me.   I was on my back, and she climbed right up, laid down on me and put her cheek against mine and we dozed like that for about ten minutes I guess, until her weight started to bother me being on my chest like that.

I think she came into our room because I had her humidifier on in her room for her stuffy nose, and she’d gotten cold (her little toesies were icicles).  After I’d had enough of 35 lbs on my chest I made the dumb mistake of having her lay to  my left on the bed, which is on the edge of the bed, thinking in a few minutes I’d take her back to her room for the rest of the night.

Har har.  I feel fast asleep snuggled up with her, and she pretty much stuck right next to me all night… until at like 6:40 a.m., she rolled off the bed and landed between the bed and my nightstand. 

Yep, that woke both me and my husband right up.  She was crying right away and crawled right back up into bed and sat in my lap while I felt around her head for any huge lumps, while my husband got up and turned on the bathroom light so we could check her visually and make sure she wasn’t bleeding profusely somewhere.

She must not have bumped too hard as I couldn’t even find a bump and there were no scratches or anything, thankfully.  Boy did I feel like dirt and completely stupid, but was extremely thankful she was more or less only startled from the fall.  It could have been really bad because there is only like eight or nine inches of space between the bed and my nightstand… so, yeah. EEK!

Lesson learned, next time she’s going between my husband and I regardless of whether I actually plan on taking her back to her own bed and follow through with it or end up falling asleep.  No sense risking a potential disaster with another fall from our bed, since this is not the first, nor I doubt the last time she’ll come crawling into our bed in the middle of the night.

20 minutes passed and I hadn’t heard anything yet so I called them, the director had just gone back to check on the Kiddo… she was still holding her wrist and whimpering.  Soooo… My husband drove me home so I could get my car and then he headed to the daycare to check her out of class while I moved the car seat from his car to mine in the parking lot.  He couldn’t leave work for the day so he drove back to work and I drove to the Kiddo’s doctor’s office.

Her doctor didn’t seem to think anything was broken, she let him handle her wrist and press on it with his fingers, and she didn’t cry.  But she refused to bend or twist her wrist.  He sent us to get xrays just in case, so we did that next.  She DID cry for that, since they had to turn her wrist a little bit to get certain angles, they only took three xrays.  One with her palm flat on the table, one with it at maybe 45 degree angle, and the hardest one to get was the 90 degree angle, or the “karate chop” position.  For that one she did cry.

Right now she’s napping, I hope she doesn’t toss and turn very much since I know that will probably wake her up and she needs the rest…  I’m supposed to hear back on the results of the xrays this afternoon, and then I am going to ask what we should do in the meantime even if it is just a sprain.  My guess is I’ll be working from home for at least one or two days depending on how quickly it heals itself, like I had to when she sprained her ankle falling out of bed.  I don’t think the daycare is going to want to worry about her reinjuring her wrist while she is under their care, even if she were to wear a sling of some type.

I just hope it is indeed not broken. I would rather she not have to wear a cast on it.