First Major Trauma

I have heard the term "all boy" for all my life. But it wasn't until I had a boy that I realized exactly what the term meant.

Ever since Nathan has started crawling, he's been exploring everything. And usually destroying it. He's just in to everything and wants to see and feel (and usually taste) how it works.
So we've had our share of falls - or "bonks" as we call them. He's had cuts and scrapes, dog bites and goose eggs, and black eyes. He's fallen on the carpet, on the linoleum, on the deck, off the stairs, off the couch, recliner, and coffee table.....

And this time - onto the coffee table.

He and I were playing on the floor of the living room Sunday evening. He walked over to the end table where we have his books. He either threw a toy or a book or something and it thudded on the table, but the throwing motion caused him to lose his footing and he slipped and his head thudded against the edge of the table. I knew from just the solid sound of it that it was gonna be a screamer, so I immediately snatched him up and held him tight and started comforting him.
He did one of those long, silent wails, and when he finally came up for air, the real screaming began. He turned his head toward me, and I see blood pouring out his mouth.

I actually did manage to remain pretty level-headed, believe it or not. I couldn't figure out what was cut, so went and got a washrag and put a few ice cubes in it to see if he would suck on them. At least we could use the washrag to catch all the blood. He wasn't really interested in the wash rag, but after a few minutes he quit screaming. The whole inside of his mouth was bloody, and I couldn't tell what was cut, so I let him nurse to see if some of the blood would clean out and I could get a better look. He had no trouble nursing, so I figured that ruled out bitten lips or a bitten tongue.

And this doesn't even show the blood that was all over his legs and all over my shirt, and what he swallowed.

He wouldn't let me look inside his mouth, but I finally figured it out that when he fell, he actually hit the inside of his mouth above his two front teeth. His gum was almost black from bruising, and I think he may have torn his frenum - the part that connects his top lip to his gum (I had to look up what it was called). And the only way I could even see that was by pretending we were playing and holding him upside down by his feet.

We called the dentist first thing Monday morning. They wanted us to bring him in just to check it out. By then it was swollen so that even the inside of his upper lip was swollen, so you couldn't really even pull it back to get a look at it. Not to mention him squirming away because it hurt to touch it.

The dentist said since he's so young, there really won't be any permanent damage, since even if his baby teeth are damaged, he'll eventually lose them, and he's so young that his permanent teeth haven't even begun to form beneath the gums. The main problem would be if it would happen to get infected. So we were sent home with basically a charge to keep it clean and keep an eye on him - and check back in two weeks. And I don't think they're even going to charge us for the visit. (Another reason I love our dentist!)

It sounds mean to say that I'm glad that Paul wasn't home for this. He doesn't deal well with blood (at least his own, but he's never seen Nathan bleed), so he probably would have been in a tizzy and been hovering and making me anxious. I'm sure he'll get to experience injuries, but hopefully it will be a while before we have another that involves this much blood.