Catching up on Posts--Luke's first Shiner :-(

So, I feel like a terrible mom!  Luke got his first shiner under my watch and care  :-(.

I know we can't possibly protect him from ever getting hurt, but I didn't think it would be so soon in his life. This is how it all went down.....   I was upstairs changing the sheets on a guest bed--Luke was in the room with me.  As I finished putting the new sheets on the bed and placed all of the decorative pillows on the bed, I started to go to the other side of the room where I had placed the old sheets, so that I could grab them, grab Luke and then head back downstairs.   At the same time, I saw Luke pull up on the side of the bed.  A little voice in my head said, "Heather, remember there is a metal bed rail that Luke cannot see, hidden underneath the thick comforter.  What if he hits his head on it?"  I replied to the voice, "I am just going to run over here quickly to grab the sheets and then I will grab Luke on the way out of the room.  It will be more efficient that way, and SURELY nothing could happen in that little bit of time."   Well, I should have listened to the voice.  As soon as I reached down to grab the old sheets, I heard a loud bang and then a scream.  As Luke was bending down to go back to a crawl position from his standing position, he slammed his poor little supraorbital foramen (bone just above the eyelid) on the metal bed rail.   Why didn't I listen to the voice?  (Now, I think it was probably the Holy Spirit).

I immediately got onto my phone's internet as I cuddled my little baby, trying to search for what I should do.  Many thoughts went through my head, almost simultaneously...  How serious is this?  Should I take him to the ER?  Could he lose his vision?  If I take him to the ER, is someone going to call CPS on me? We are going on a trip to Seattle next week on Southwest--is the flight attendant going to try to take Luke from me since he has a black eye (I had just heard a blurb from a news story where this happened:  click here to read.)  So many things were going through my head, and I now know just how much I was overreacting!  Based on what I read, I tried to put ice on the eyebone.  Luke didn't want ANYTHING to do with that.  In fact, after a few minutes of crying, he wanted down to play.  But, mommy was still feeling terrible.

I lost a lot of sleep that night--trying to figure out if he was going to be ok--if I should call our insurance company's 24 hour nurse hotline, etc.   In fact, I finally decided to move him from his crib in his bedroom upstairs to the pack n' play in our bedroom, so that I could more easily listen to him breath.

Luke is such an explorer.  I know that this is not going to be his last injury--and, I know we probably will eventually have to go to the ER.  But, in the meantime, I am going to pray for his safety and listen to the little voice in my head!