Crying in the ER

So it's official, Todd & I spent our first night as parents at the ER. Ava awoke after having a fabulous time at the Jacobsen's housewarming party in a full-out scream. I was on my way home after cleaning up & Todd had just put them down about 45 minutes.
So he enters the bedroom with Ava standing in the middle of her room screaming. He goes to comfort her when he sees all of the blood. I remember from an incident with my Nacogdoches friend Schuyler that the face bleeds a lot. So when I get home he is standing in the garage with the door open waiting for me.
Here's a brief analysis of our personalities in a crisis: for some reason when in the midst of a crisis, I am cool-headed. I claim this goes back to when Jacob hurt his lip- even as a little girl I was able to remain calm despite the blood. This was the same last night. Todd was not sure what to do, so I organized us all to go to the ER. On the way I sat in the back of the car talking to Ava in the event she had a concussion to keep her awake. There's more to this analysis later....
Anyhow at the ER, the girls were great. Ava, somewhat covered in blood, was calm but tired. Sydnee who had been asleep was wide awake. Both were actually funny as we talked about the noises to keep Ava's mind occupied. There is an especially loud air conditioning blowing thingie that keeps bugs out of the hospital- they thought that was funny. We talked about all the bugs that are being blown out.
Ava was great with the nurses and doctors. She explained that she fell out of bed & hit her head. Her deep cut is on her right eyebrow. The people at the ER were very sweet to her. Once we got into a room, they turned on cartoons and assessed the situation. The doctor said it looked too big for glue & that it would most likely require stitches. Now I have had experience with children getting stitched when I worked for the shelter. It's way not fun. So here's part 2 of my personality assessment: once we are in better hands, and the actual doctoring takes place- I'm not a valuable assset anymore, but luckily Todd is. We decided we compliment each other well. I had to leave the room, with a sleeping Sydnee at this point, to cry with Ava. I can't describe this feeling accurately, but I will say that it's heart-wrenching and painful. She screamed and cried as they sewed her up. Todd held her hand and talked her through it. She screamed my name many times, which didn't help me at all. I wanted to be brave for her, but I couldn't help crying myself because I hated that she hurt. The worse part of the procedure is when they got to a point where the paper fell over her eyes and she couldn't see Todd anymore, and she screamed louder than ever.
When is was all over, I went in- sadly composed- and held her. Such a small procedure, really- but so dramatic! She was asleep in a matter of minutes; it had been a very long day. So we got home, put her in our bed & we all wen to sleep. We are up this morning a little groggy, but awake. Ava looked at herself in the mirror and said she looked scary. I remember thinking that about Jacob when he came back with stitched in his lip. So in about 5 days she will get them removed & I will work hard on doing all of the things I need to do to prevent bad scarring. As vain as it is, that is a worry of mine. It's all her eyebrow, and hair might not grow back...so we'll see if some of the new ideas behind scarring will be effective.
Anyhow, Ava let me take some pictures of her to show you, so here is our little princess. We're going to the movie today (for the first time) to celebrate her bravery. She has 8 stitches. It's still very puffy and Ava as trying to smile- which is not really a smile. :)