Sunday started out like any other lazy weekend at the Rust house. We all got up late and stayed in bed watching tv and drinking bottles and eating cherrois from a cup.

Around noon, Madi was out in the ahllway by the steps and she came running back into the bedroom when she tripped over the big suitcase and went soaring into the air. The metal rail on the side of the bed caught her fall, and with a loud thump, followed by an even louder scream, Madi Rose was on her way to her very first emergency room visit.

I was litterally a foot away as she fell, just inches from catching her as she went airborne, so I immediately scooped her up and saw that he chin was split open. Luckily there wasn't too much in the way of bleeding, but it still looked pretty bad. We tried to put some ice on it, but she didn't want it. We quickly got dressed and ran her over to the ER.

Luckiy for us, we live about 5 minutes from a hospital. It used to be St. Francis, but now it's a part of UPMC. When we got there, there was only one other person waiting to see someone. By this time Madi was in pretty good spirits. We sang her "la la" song all the way there, and except for an occational "ouch! boo boo", she was fine. We talked to the first nurse who took her temperature and blood pressure. She was a little freaked by the tempurature thing that got stuck into her ear, and when the blood pressure cuff blew up, she made her very sad "I'm about to cry" face. It wasn't until the nurse brought out a syringe full of numbing cream that Madi really started to flip. Apparently she thought it was a shot, and since the last two trips to her doctor ended with a series of immunizations, she's a little freaked out by the thought of getting more shots.

So after holding her steady, the nurse was able to get the cream on the wound and we headed back to the waiting room. This cream took about 30 minutes to numb the area, so we read some books and tried to call Grammy Rust. We also filled out some paperwork . Madi was in pretty good spirits through it all.

Then came the fun part. We were called back into a room that was full of gadgets and lights. Madi was intrigued by everything in there, but was visibly concerned as to why exactly she was there. The doctor came and and explained what was going to happen. Basically the prcedure was they would take the baby and strap her on a board. A nurse would hold her head and the doctor would stich up the gash. We could stay or go, whichever was easier for us.

We chose to stay in the room. I'm not sure if you've ever tried to give a cat a bath, but it is similar to strapping a 19 month old to a surfboard. She kicked her way out of the velcro straps three times before the nurse got them fastened. Finally they were able to get her arms in and she was ready for stitching.

This was probably one of the worst things I've ever seen, I've never heard a baby scream so loud and so much. but I can't say I blame her. Four sticthed later we were all done (at least until later this week when we have to get them taken out), and Madi had recovered from the stress of the day.

We Went and bought some toys and a new CD and visited with Grammy, Pap Pap and Uncle Matt. Madi agreed to never get hurt again.