Emergency Room for Tia

So it started out as another day for Thanksgiving family gatherings and we were having a great time. We were at my Uncle Chuck's house and there were about 30 people there all enjoying each other's company. Tia was having a ball trying to play with all the big kids. We were all taking turns watching Tia and for the first few hours, it seemed just like any other day. I was sitting at the table when I saw a flash of pink tumbling down the stairs. Yes, it was Tia doing some cartwheels down the carpeted staircase. I jumped up and ran over. Luckily, she landed perfectly on her bottom on the very bottom step. You could tell she didn't hurt a thing and didn't even cry. Me, however was traumatized by seeing my little girl tumbling down the stairs. I have had a lot of faith in letting her climb on stairs for months now and she had done so well. Even last night, she was going up and down the stairs with no hands and just did a great job. These stairs didn't have a hand rail and she was trying to take on more than she bargained for. So from that point on, we were all watching Tia like a hawk. Down stairs, all the kids were playing. They had a playroom full of fun stuff from a ping pong table, pin ball machine, a mini basketball court, foosball table, bar for the really big kids ;), and of course the gaming center for all the video games. There was also a work out station with weights and a weight bench that we had all been watching so none of the girls or little ones would go near. What was hard was Tia's cousins Juliean and Janelle were crawling all over it and she wanted to do the same since she is in her copy cat mode. It really only takes a few seconds for all to go wrong when Tia crawled up on the weight bench and fell backwards hitting the edge of the weight pole with her head. My brother and dad both saw it, almost in slow motion, but couldn't get there in time. My sister-n-law Dolor picked Tia up and told Chris she was bleeding. Chris just thought it would be a small wound but to his surprise, he put a towel on a part of the back of her head that was flooding with blood. I was coming down stairs to see if Chris wanted me to take over watching Tia for a while when they were running up the stairs as Tia is crying, everyone is yelling out what happened, and I am in shock over what was going on. My uncle got in the car with us as I held Tia in the back seat and we sped off to the ER at the local hospital. By the time we got half way there, Tia stopped crying and the bleeding seemed to have stopped mostly. I was happy because I didn't know how bad or okay the wound was and the whole experience was just so hard on us to see her in pain. We got to the hospital and checked her in. We had to wait a bit and finally got in to the doctor's room. The nurse talked to us and cleaned off her wound. At first, she made the comment that it would probably just be glued shut. That is what we were hoping for, but we weren't sure. Then the doctor came in a bit later and said Tia would have to have it stapled shut with two metal staples. We had to hold a numbing cream on her head for 20 minutes which was not fun because Tia just wanted to leave and get out of there, but we managed to do it and finally the doctor came in and gave her the staple. That was very hard for Chris and I to watch, but we know it is what she needed. She only needed one staple and we got instructions on how to take it out after a week and we were on our way. Tia was happy to get out of there. We got her some McDonald's fries and some tylenol and we were off to my uncle's house again. Tia seemed in good spirits saying 'ouwie' from time to time but overall she was doing well. Chris and I on the other hand were still a bit traumatized by the situation and both just felt so bad for her. When we got back to my uncle's, Tia was back to her smiling fun self running all over and flirting with her boy cousins. She was petting the dog and making everyone smile. She fell asleep on the way home and she seemed to be doing pretty good for the most part. Chris and I had a heart to heart talk on the way home about the worry that comes with being a parent and how we just wish and pray every day that they grow up with little to no permanent wounds. With another one on the way and maybe even a third, we just know that we have to prepare ourselves for years of worrying for our kids safety. And of course, we are just happy that the wound that Tia received wasn't worse and we pray that this will be the worst of any wounds she'll ever receive. She did not pass out or vomit, so we don't think she got any sort of concussion, thankfully. I was hoping she'd be like me and never have to go to the ER.