On the first Sunday of our trip to New York, Vinny and I earned another notch in our parenting belt. Dominic was playing, fell, hit his head on the corner of a wall and split it open. It didn't bleed all that much, but as soon as Vinny was able to wipe it clean, we could see how deep the cut was and both knew it needed stitches. Of course, being Sunday, our choices were urgent care or the hospital. Thinking it might be quicker than the ER, we opted for an urgent care that was close by. We walked into a packed waiting room, but luckily, due to Dominic's age, they let us jump ahead of most of the line. The hardest part was for them to numb the area with the needle. You could tell that the doctor really wanted to make sure it was numb so that he would feel no pain for the stitches, but unfortunately, that meant several sticks with the needle for a squirmy, screaming 3 year old. It took Vinny and I, plus 2 nurses to hold him down for the doctor. With a break and some convincing to lay back down, we got Dominic to sit still for the stitches. Since there was no pain at that point, Dominic was more than happy to show off his singing and smarts for the two nurses that were in there giving him tons of praise. The distractions and promise of many stickers and lollipops worked and he was all patched up in no time and back to himself. (Side note: Dante was with us and slept soundly the entire time, even through all of the screaming!) After that, we went on with the rest of our day as planned.
5 days later, we brought him back to get the stitches removed. The first time the doctor went to get started, Dominic freaked, almost successfully crawling off of the exam table. The doctor called for reinforcement to hold him down. Once Dominic realized that it didn't hurt he was ok to sit still and count the 5 stitches as they came out. He was also happy to sit up and be done once the counting was over. A few more lollipops in hand, we left and our little trooper's first set of stitches were already a thing of the past.
I have no doubt that those several minutes of being held down and stuck with the needle were some of the most scary moments of his life, however, as the parent, I experienced something new. It was like I could feel his pain, plus my own pain of seeing him going through it. Then, on top of that, you've got to keep your cool, because if Dominic were to see Vinny or I freaking out, then he'd have lost it even more. I'm very thankful it was just a minor injury and besides a small mark, which hopefully some magic creams will take away, all we'll have is the memory of it. And likely, aside from being able to read this, Dominic may have no memory of it at all.
