It happened. Our first ever baby injury. At a friend's house this weekend, Oscar was scratched in the head by their cat.
I was changing Oscar's diaper on the couch, and he was crying. Veloceraptor style. The cat peeked around the corner of the couch and retreated. Then, before I knew it, he was back and hissing and going straight for Oscar's head. His little eyes got so big, and I screamed - the cat ran away. I screamed again when I saw the blood and grabbed him into my arms.
Nelson cleaned the scratches (five of them, on about a half inch from his eye), and I rocked him and nursed him and Oscar was back to his smiling cooing self in a half an hour. We called the pediatrician and they prescribed Oscar some antibiotics to prevent infection, which we picked up this morning. FYI - apparently cat bites are much worse than cat scratches.
Accident over, baby safe, I could not help but feel like I should have been more vigilant in protecting my baby. I was up half the night riddled with guilt (Oscar, as the saying goes, slept like a baby.) I have never been more distressed in my life than when I saw my baby bleeding and heard him crying in pain - it was like a physical ache in my chest. I wish that I could absorb every hurt he's ever going to feel. I'd take that cat scratch for him in a minute. And all the scrapes, bumps and bruises he will undoubtedly experience through out his life. I'll even take the heartache.
But, I know that growing up isn't easy and that these experiences will help to build his character and make him a stronger person, blah, blah, blah. I hope that I can learn to get over all his boo-boos as well as he has!