Diving

Today, while helping big brother and bringing him his Teddy, Hannah had a bit of a mishap. As she was running into the living room she apparently tripped and went diving into the coffee table. I have always heard that those tables are just an accident waiting to happen and, yes, both of my kids have had a few head bumps on it as toddlers but this one took the cake. I could already tell by the cry that it really hurt, but then I saw her head. A deep gash next to her left eye brow. Poor girl...poor mom. OK, so I am a nurse, but when I saw her head and heard her cry, I temporarily lost my ability to think. I didn't know what to do, who to call, do I take her to the ER? After a quick prayer and a few deep breaths I started to think straight. It was not a life threatening emergency, but it was urgent. So I decided to call the doctor's office and see if I could just get her in and if they didn't have a spot I would take her to urgent care. Thankfully they were able to get her in in the next hour and a half. Next, I called my mommy. Finally I called Shad and left him a voice cracking message that we were all OK, but... (I would have called him first but he is back over in the desert, you know, 6 hours away! So mom just made more sense. And, sometimes, you just need your mom, OK?!)

She was so good. She let me put a band aid on it (if you know Hannah you know that she finds band aids crippling) and she kept ice on it too.

Oh was she brave at the doctor. They just put steristrips on it. No stitches, thankfully. Please note the large Dora sticker on her dress.

She might have a boo-boo, but that girl just can't stop dancing!


At the doctor during nap time plus a big day makes for a little girl that can fall asleep on the couch just before dinner. Note that she did manage to get into her swimsuit first. (And for all my nurse friends, yes, I did make sure she would wake up and there has been no projectile vomiting. I'm pretty sure there is no brain bleed!)
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Not only was she exhausted, but so am I. I pride myself in being the calm mom that doesn't get excited when my kids cry and get hurt. But this time I felt like "just a mom," nurse be gone! People have told me that the nurse part of the brain turns off when your kids get (semi)seriously hurt but I didn't really believe it. Well, you were all right and I owe you all a big apology...so, sorry.
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I've really been struggling lately with the notion of not being a nurse and "just" being a mom. I have always loved being a nurse, but I didn't realize how much I missed it until we moved back home and have spent time with all my nurse friends. I miss the job, A LOT! But I also know that God wants me home, raising my kids, taking care of Shad and our family, being "just" a wife and mom. (Please note that there is nothing "just" about being a stay-at-home mom.) And I strive to do what God wants me to be doing even if it's hard to let go of what I have been and, most of the time, want to be. So God used this experience to show me how to be a mom without the nurse part. First of all, my nurse brain totally shut down after I saw the gash. Like I said I didn't even know what to do. Next our normal doctor was out of the office today so we had to see a doctor we didn't know. And she didn't know me. She didn't know that I am a nurse. She talked to me like I was a mom to a little girl that had a gash on her head. She even explained to me what steristrips were. Like I haven't put those on people a thousand times! But she didn't know, and I didn't say. It felt good to just have things explained. To be treated like a scared mom. I didn't have to act like I knew what I was doing in a technical sense. I just got to be the mommy. It felt good. God does things in funny ways sometimes but when I realized what He was showing me it brought tears to my eyes and a prayer of thanks to my lips.
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So here I am. Wife, mom, nurse that is not practicing at this time so I can take care of my family and be the wife and mom God wants me to be and that my family needs and deserves. And I'm OK with that!