May 21: Zach's Bad Fall

Uggh, what a terrible scare we had! On Wednesday, May 21, Zach and I were getting ready for play group. My friend Shebah has been picking us up and taking us home for both play group and bible study. I opened the apartment door for Zach and I to leave, and he took off. The phone rang, so I stepped back into the apartment to answer it, not giving a single thought to Zach being in the hallway. AFter I hung up, I was walking back towards the hallway when I heard the thuds and a scream. Of course I panicked. I got into the hallway and Zach was on his back at the bottom of the stairs. I have no idea how, or from what height, but he took a tumble down the stairs. I don't recall how I got down the stairs so fast, and scooped him up. He didn't scream for long, and he kept pointing to the stairs, as though to tell me that it was their fault. He wasn't bleeding anywhere, and didn't appear to be in much pain, clearly nothing broken. I didn't see any bumps yet. Both of us were pretty shaken up by the whole thing. I am surprised that I did not go into labor with the scare of it all! Zach didn't make a sound the entire ride to playgroup. Once we got there though, he took off, running towards the church, and was laughing and playing. It was during this time that I noticed his odd contusion on his ear, and that the had a bump behind his ear. An hour or so later I saw the big goose egg on his forehead (his hair had been covering it up). When we got home, he went down for a nap with no problem, plenty exhausted. He woke up very poorly though and wanted to be held and lie down in my bed. He was whining and crying and holding his head. I gave him some Tylenol for what I assumed was a pretty nasty headache, and after 20 minutes he was up and playing again. He was a little grumpy that evening and went to bed early. We expected him to be grumpy and sore the next day, particularly after we saw a big bruise on his back, but he was no worse for the wear. Zach woke up in a glorious mood and was his happy, playful self the entire day. Could be because it was a holiday and he had both Mom and Dad home. This so far is my least favorite part of parenting - the awful scares and the worrying. I had checked a few of our books, and some online sites about head injuries and when to see a doctor and so on, and he was totally in the clear, symptom-wise, but of course I was still very observant of his moods and such.

The pictures were taken the next day, and of course I don't feel they accurately reflect the horror that was the injury. :) The one on his ear is just odd. It looked like his ear wanted to split open, but the skin didn't break. It changed colors quite a bit. The goose egg was nearly gone the next day, left with just a shadow of a bruise. But there they are, pictures for posterity.

We are very curious as to how it happened, especially because Zachary is generally very cautious. He has never tried to go down the stairs by himself and always waits for someone's hand. I wish I knew if he slipped, or if he was trying to go down on his own and fell. So odd.