Monday, May 17, 2010

A Rude Awakening

I can't really think of a worse way to wake up in the morning than by a four-year-old covered in blood. At approximately 7:00 am this morning, I heard Ashlyn whining and then, "It won't stop!" I looked down to see her standing with a hand full of blood cupped around her chin; blood polka-dotting her pajamas; and blood smeared across her face, arms and legs. I jumped out of bed faster than is humanly possible for an 8 month pregnant woman, while still in that half-awake/half-asleep state-of-mind. Panic and confusion quickly followed as I lead her to my bathroom, trying to understand where all that blood was coming from.

The source = her nose, and I have no idea how long it had been bleeding before she decided to come tell me. I am sure that Ashlyn was just as confused as I was by the whole thing and had tried to take care of it on her own before coming to me. Upon further investigation, I found blood covering her pillow, sheets, bed spread, door, door frame, door knob, and carpet, and then even more in the main bathroom - on the tile, counter top, and sink. Ashlyn was convinced that the cause of her distress was the kick she received to her upper lip from Trent on Saturday - now that is what I would call a delayed reaction!

I have only had one bloody nose in my lifetime (thanks to a certain big brother of mine) and it really didn't amount to much. So, I had no idea how to stop it. Do you lean forward or back? Do stuff it or pinch it? Brian gets bloody noses from time to time and so I blame him. Of course he was at the gym and couldn't answer any of my questions, so I stuffed it and had her lean back. Then I called my mom and found out that I was NOT suppose to stuff it and was suppose to lean forward.

Once the bleeding stop, I put her in the bathtub and then started the clean-up process, which took a good hour. On the bright side, by 8:30 the kids were all bathed, dressed, and sitting at the table eating breakfast - that NEVER happens!

The photo is a little blurry, but I didn't really have a lot of time to get the "perfect shot!"

11 comments:

Melissa said...

That would be a horrifying sight to wake up to. I'm glad everything turned out OK.

Jamie said...

I hate that - Addi gets them all the time, it's not so fun. Good start to a monday morning though!

All About M.E.('s) said...

Poor Ashlyn. And what a sweet and brave girl to try and take care of the problem herself. Madi would have come screaming in horror at the first sight of blood.
Now, sympathy aside, what a nightmare of a mess! That sounds like a pain to clean up.
I don't think any of us Lifferth's got bloody noses growing up. I remember other little kids getting them at school and it seemed like they always bled A LOT! Hopefully, it was a one time occurance for her.

Princess said...

Being a horror movie fan , that would have freaked me out had I been woken up like that! I am surprised you didn't go into labor, lol Poor sweet girl, I can't believe she tried to take care of it herself, that makes my heart ache! Well you should be getting something in the mail today to make her feel better :) Love you

Ashley Rae said...

Oh my word!!! That would seriously be so frightening to wake up to that. Wow. What a nightmare. But way to look at the bright side of things... haha

Lindsay said...

Oh my gosh! Poor girl, that would scare me to death! And I'm just picturing what a clean-up job that would be...bummer. Sorry about all that!

Zachary said...

Ok first of all...that poor girl! I am glad she is ok and I hope that she doesn't have any more.

Second though...I love that you apologize for taking a blurry picture when most people never would have remembered to get the picture in the first place!

Anonymous said...

Ashbelle, you are so very brave!!
What a rough start to a day!
Glad that all is well now. You are a sweetheart.
Love, Grandmom

Erica said...

Ack! I've had a lot of those mornings. Justy got them a lot, but not so much anymore. Poor little thing.

Gretch said...

That is CRAZY! Poor Ashlyn. That would scare me to death if I woke up to that...glad you got it stopped.

The Wright's said...

Ha HA! I'm behind in your blog, but this post made me laugh. I do EXACTLY the same thing in an emergency situation. All medical training goes out the door! Glad she survived even though you did the "wrong" thing!