First Stitches

Finley got his first stitches last week. What a milestone! Finley is in the process of learning to run, but doesn't always pick his feet up enough when he's wearing shoes. As you can imagine, this results in falls. The incident in question was a nice little face-plant outside on the tile. Finley hardly cried at all, but he split his lower lip bad enough that I figured we better take him to the emergency room (it was after hours). Turned out he needed a couple of stitches, and they wanted the plastic surgeon to do them because of the location on his face.
Stitches for a strong, active, scared, NOT sedated 16-month-old are terrible. We wrapped him up in a sheet, then it took me, Nate, a nurse, and the surgeon to hold him down. He was crying hysterically and trying to shout at us while the doctor cleaned him, shot him up with lidocaine, and then gave him stitches. I don't know how that doctor did it.
The next morning, when Finley was eating breakfast, I noticed there was string sticking out of his lip. Turns out Finley's top stitch had come untied, and it soon fell out completely. (Guess that's what happens when you're putting stitches in a squirmy, hysterical toddler.) Since he only had two stitches to begin with, and it had only been about 12 hours, I called the hospital, who called the doctor, who told us to come in. The thought of having to put that stitch back in AGAIN did not make me happy.
When we got to the doctor's office, Finley clearly recognized the doctor from the night before and didn't want to be anywhere near him. The doctor said the stitch that came out was the least important one, and his lip was starting to heal enough that we didn't have to put it back in. Thank goodness!
Finley went in this weekend to get the remaining stitch removed. His lip isn't healed yet, but it's getting there. Here's hoping there are no more trips to the hospital anytime soon!


Completely unrelated, here is a photo of a yummy Thai beef salad we made for dinner last week, and a photo of Finley's crazy bed head after his nap one day.