Philip's head injury!

Yesterday without thinking, I stood Philip in the laundry basket while I vacuumed around him in my bedroom. Before I knew it, he was leaning on the side of it and it quickly turned over dumping him out. Unfortunately, he was facing the bathroom and his forehead landed on the metal strip connecting the carpet and vinyl floors. I quickly picked up by screaming baby and apologized over and over for letting him get hurt. My sweet Philip had a dent in his forehead! Within 5 minutes, he was off running and playing, but after about 30 minutes the dent swelled to a quarter-sized lump.



After I laid him down for his afternoon nap, I decided to call our hospital on-call nurse because I knew there was something about checking a sleeping child after he had bumped his head. The nurse addressed the situation as a "head injury" (I was thinking of it as a little bump, but it's better to be safe than sorry). She told me to look for a black eye, vomitting and confusion as signs of a concusion. She also said that I should sleep in Philip's room for the next two nights and wake him every four hours. He thankfully showed no other problems yesterday afternoon and evening yet Matthew said the rest of Philip's life is definitely worth two nights of my sleep. Therefore, last night Philip had Mommy for a roommate.

We decided to leave a twin bed in Philip's room to have an extra bed in the house and for just such occasions as we knew sickness / accidents would probably occur sooner or later. This is where the fun began. We put Philip to bed around 8:30pm. Matthew suggested we go ahead and wake him at 11:30pm as we were going to bed so I would only have to get up once during the night. The nurse told us to look for coherentness and ability to walk upon waking him. Let me ask you, how many people are coherent and walking straight upon being woken up out of a deep sleep? Now think of that person being a little 15-month-old who just learned to walk at all 2 months ago!! Matthew and I were trying not to laugh as bleary-eyed Philip tottered around in his room and then suddenly took off in a slow run heading down the hall. Maybe he thought it was morning all ready!! Well, the 3:30am wake-up was just precious. I rubbed his back in his crib and then picked him up. He just melted onto my shoulder. His room was only lit by the nightlight in the bathroom around the corner. I stood him on the floor, but he just reached for me as if saying, "Mommy, what are you doing? Don't you know what time it is?" I thought being able to stand showed enough body control. He easily went back to sleep as soon as I laid him back in the crib. Thank you, thank you On Becoming Baby Wise for helping Matthew and I develop Philip into a great sleeper. This is definitely the one book I advise all expecting moms to read as it will help you create a great schedule for your little one and make him/her that much more easier to care for.