Littlest's 1st Trip to the ER

Littlest fell down the stairs. Our wooden stairs. Thankfully, he's okay. He has a few bruises on his shoulders and thighs, an abrasion on each cheekbone, a bruised nose and a fat lip but that's it. No concussion, no broken bones. He rolled most of the way down, just one or two head over heels flips. My poor, sweet baby. I have some serious bad mommy vibes coursing through my veins right now. You see, our steps are somewhat divided. We have 3 steps, then a landing, then 10 steps in the other direction. I left Littlest at the top of the stairs and went into my bedroom (at the bottom of the landing) leaving Littlest to walk down the top 3 steps himself. He's done this a million times, in fact he goes up and down all the steps without assistance. But this time he made it down the the top 3 steps then rolled/fell down the big ones. I don't know if he thought I went all the way down and was trying to follow me or if he just fell. Either way I feel guilty. No more taking the steps independently for a while! I snapped these shots this morning while he was sleeping, so they're not the best quality, but here's the aftermath:

Cheekbone abrasion-he has one to match on the other side

Fat lip-about 2-3 times it's normal size. His cheeks are naturally that chubby :)

This experience showcased how differently Hubby and I react to traumatic situations. There are positives and negatives about both our reactions but I think, overall, we're a pretty good team. We both heard the thuds of Littlest going down the stairs and went into action. Hubby ran to the bottom of the stairs and scooped Littlest up. I ran down from upstairs. Littlest had a few dazed seconds and then began to cry.

Hubby is supercharged in these moments, instantly emotionally charged, angry, dissecting the situation, trying to find a cause, a reason, trying to figure out what events contributed to what happened. All this while doing a full body check, working each joint, looking for any sign of major injury. If you're seriously injured he'll know how and why in a matter of seconds. He had identified all of Littlest's injuries almost instantly.

I'm at the other end of the spectrum. My emotions are paused and I'm eerily calm. I also dissect the situation but in a different way. While Hubby takes care of the immediate injuries I usually assess the other side. My mind was jumbling with the thoughts and decisions; ticking off a list of things we were going to do. We're going to the ER just to be sure. Grab shoes. Have Biggest bring in the dogs NOW. What time is it? Count the steps Littlest fell down-the doctor will want to know. Grab Littlest's cup, it will help comfort him.

So in the few short moments it took us to get loaded into the vehicle, Hubby had a laundry list of Littlest's injuries both obvious and possible, and I had the loose ends tied up with a list of technical information. It was stressful, and we don't communicate well during the moment but in the end I think our two different modes of operation compliment each other well. Of course, being that I pause my emotions, I have to click play sooner or later. So today I'm a bit emotional. All the what ifs start playing through my mind...I'm so thankful all is well.