Baby Blase

I imagine it’s because it just happened and I have yet to get perspective and find some piece of humor yet, but, I am having a really hard time writing about the fact that half of our son’s face is dotted with scabby, dried blood and his left eye is still swollen.

THAT BASTARD CAT attacked the kid. And there is nothing even remotely funny about it.

Yesterday was the worst day of my life.

Harrison was sitting with Marc next to the couch where Jack was sitting. H must have reached up to grab a hold of the cat – which we don’t allow (because the cat is EFFING CRAZY) – and within a split second Jack had swatted punched him 3 times. I was in the kitchen about to make coffee and I heard the worst screams I’d ever heard, but, as a seasoned-pro-mom I calmly walked toward the living room, but, was met half way with Marc holding the baby and mumbling over and over that he “only turned away for a second… only for a second”.

Marc blew past me and took H into the nursery. I was stopped in my tracks as I tried to make sense of what I had just seen – that could not have been blood coming from my son’s eyes – could it?

It was.

I still didn’t know what happened. I went into the nursery and took the hysterical baby from Marc while he got some Motrin. Then I nursed H and he fell asleep. It was only at this point that I could see that there was a 4 inch scratch from the top of his head to his forehead about 6 punctures in face and the area around his eye was bloody.

NOTE: He is doing AWESOME today! This photo, while it doesn’t show the unfathomable – his face before it was cleaned up, looks far worse than his injuries actually are.

I covered H with my sweatshirt – to keep his eye from the sun – and we left for the hospital. He woke up when we put him in the car seat and cried for maybe a minute (the last time he cried all day) and stayed awake – he and me still under my sweatshirt trying to keep calm. We got to Dell Children’s Hospital where we experienced the absolute best care and sweetest people I’ve ever encountered in a hospital.

H was incredible. He stayed calm yet totally cognizant throughout the initial exam, cleaning and administering of ointment to his cuts and through the eye exam where he was poked and prodded quite firmly. We were finally told that most likely he did not have any cuts on his eye, however, we were able to see that there were indeed cuts on the top, outside of his eyelid and on the inside of his lower lid. They did a final ink-under-black-light test to make sure that there were no cuts to the eye – and there were not.

The doctors and nurses were genuinely impressed by his calmness. This comes from the fact that he is truly living up to his new nickname – Nails. But, also, because Marc and I were really very poised. I credit my ability to live in each moment of this experience as it happened – rather than indulging in my dreadful premonitions of H growing up blind, with an eye-patch covering his scary, glass eye – 100%, to Meadow DeVor (my former life coach) and to the work of Byron Katie. Thank you.

We feel lucky.

And thankful.

But, still ill at ease – or just plain ill. However, with every squeal of delight that H has released since we left the hospital – and there have been a lot – we are feeling better.

Listening: Wavves