Sam felt the need to catch up with his brother in terms of scars...

So this morning started off not super great, with crazy hyper Josh and slightly grumpy and still sleepy Sam... and out of patience quickly and still really tired Mommy. We were going to get donuts for breakfast for Josh's birthday, but he was being all defiant and wanting to control things himself this morning, and announced that he didn't want donuts, so there! So we stayed here and had cheerios (mommy missed those donuts, but my weight sure didn't!). Got worse when I went to change and dress Sam and discovered a really nasty poopy diaper... got him cleaned up and just took it all downstairs to wash out. While I was doing this, the boys were creating, as usual. Creating havoc, of course! I can't remember now what exactly they were into, but it was not on the "approved" list and they got into trouble. Got everyone breakfast (had to eat mine in the car, but that was fine), shoes on, bag packed, etc. and out the door to the car on time, for a miracle.

Made it to the Dr. w/ no trouble from the boys or traffic, and got there early. It was nice not to have to rush! Went to the lab, did my urinalysis, got checked in at the clinic... and sat... and waited. Finally got called to get my vitals about 15 min. after we sat down in the waiting room, not too bad. Then we came back out and waited for them to call us "in just a couple of min." Which turned into an HOUR! By this time of course the boys were crazy restless, Sam was wet again and there's no changing table in the bathrooms in the clinic (what???), so I just changed him on the floor and decided I didn't care if people were upset about it. Josh and Sam were running around, climbing in and out of chairs, stroller, kid chairs, turning every which way and generally just going nuts.

FINALLY they called me back and we got there and the nurse or tech or whoever said, "now, you know we're doing a Strep B culture today, right?" Um, no... no one happened to mention that to me, do you really think I would have brought my two BOYS to that type of appt?? I don't think so!! Erg... so I got undressed and sat... and waited... and sat and waited some more... finally Josh announces that he needs to go potty AGAIN... seriously?? OK, there happened to be a private bathroom connected to the exam room, thank goodness, so I just let him go in there. Sam, meanwhile, is uber sleepy and tired and grumpy and wants to be held and snuggled, which is what I was doing when the midwife finally appeared. Instead of me putting him down, she "let" me keep holding him while I lie back and she did the heartbeat (normal, though he wasn't too happy w/ her holding that thing on him... squirmy tiger), measured, and then did the strep swab. Um, OK... holding a 25 lb. kid while doing all this, not the best of positions, just so you know.

So we get it all finished up, and I go make my next appt. for the 24th (the day before Josh's party) and wait in the pharmacy to get my scrip filled, which amazingly didn't take all that long. Then we rushed off to CFA where we're meeting some friends for lunch, who are already there.

Which brings me to the most fun part of the day. So Sam ate some lunch (Josh had some fruit and one chicken nugget and a couple fries...), and they were both playing while Sandy and I caught up right outside the door to the play area. Sam wasn't mostly too thrilled about being in the play area, just was mostly running around our area and looking in the door and stuff. But he finally was playing w/ Evan in there, and next thing I know, I saw Evan run and "crash" into the padded top of the shoe cubbies, and then Sam trying to copy him, tripped and crashed into the actual cubbies. I go run in to grab him and when I picked him up, notice he's GUSHING BLOOD!!!!

So I grab him and rush out of the play area and yell for Sandy to grab some napkins to mop up some of it so I could look to see how bad it was. So I'm rushing a bloody child across the restaurant, and people are gasping and asking if I want them to call 911, and I'm trying to get them to let me get the bleeding under control for a min. so I can look at it. Sure enough, once the blood slowed down a bit I could tell that it was a pretty small, but pretty deep cut on his forehead. Nothing to call 911 about, at least not in that location. So I keep putting pressure on it till the bleeding slows down, and someone brought some wet cloths and an improvised ice pack which also helped, and Sam started calming down, and we kind of just settled down and let it get controlled. I figured I should probably still get it looked at and that it would probably need at least some glue to hold it together so it could heal up right, so Sandy offered to take Josh so I could take Sam in. So as we were trying to get everything together, the managers grabbed their first aid kit, Sandy ran out to her car to get hers, and some guy in the restaurant also went to his car to get his. Looking for butterfly bandages to hold the cut closed. No one had any, but Sandy had some neosporin and I smeared some of that on, and then just squished it closed with a regular bandaid, which worked amazingly well, actually.

We put Josh's seat in Sandy's car and I started off w/ Mister Sam to the closest emergency room, a few min. down the road. As I was driving, it occurred to me that maybe I should check w/ our dr. office on base to see if I should go there, instead. So they took his name and what happened, and made me an appt. for almost 2 hrs. later, with an urgent message to the nurse for her to call me for a phone consult about whether we should just go ahead to the ER or not. Meanwhile, I'm sitting in the ER parking lot, waiting to hear back from the nurse... she never did call back...

I called back about 20 min. later, and let them know I figured since our appt. time was in about 45 min. anyway, that we'd just head in to the base and not worry about the ER. So that's what we did, w/ a stop at the bathroom for me and some new clothes/diaper for Sam, who was covered in dried blood. And had a VERY wet diaper.

Didn't wait too long to see the Dr. and he came in and basically told me what I'd already guessed, and went off to find some Derma glue to glue the cut together. It came in an applicator that had both the nurse and the Dr. a little confused, but after several min. they figured it out, and got it glued, with absolutely NO fussing from my brave little man, Sam!! A sterile strip and a band aid, and we were out of there! He fussed a couple of times in the car when we had to get buckled up again, but then went to sleep and had a nice long nap, while Mommy washed the blood stains out of our clothes. Josh slept some at Sandy's, and Rachel (our neighbor across the street) came and sat here while I ran to grab Josh and bring him home, since Sam was still sleeping.

Sam didn't have much dinner, but ate some and is in a decent mood, so hopefully he'll be ok to sleep tonight and more or less back to normal tomorrow.

Poor Sammy, but glad he's ok and that it wasn't more serious. Also glad that blood doesn't really phase me too much, so I was able to handle the situation without panicking or anything. But Murphy really needs to find a NEW home!!

Trying to upload pix from FB or my phone on here, but in the meantime, if you'd like to see pix, look on my FB.