A bloody nose in the middle of the bloody night

The Munchkin, as I’ve stated before, has inherited my unfortunate childhood propensity toward bloody noses. And she most often falls prey to this in the dead of night.

Last night (two nights ago? How does this work when I’m figuring out the midnight cutoff?), she awoke crying. We were still awake, though heading for bed. We walked in to find blood smeared across the Munchkin’s face and on her pillow. So, the Webmaster cleaned her up and got the bloody nose stopped, while I got a clean pillowcase out and put the bloodied one in the laundry for soaking in the morning.

Forty-five minutes after we’d put her back to bed, she began crying again. This time, she’s now gotten it on her nightgown, but has missed the pillowcase. I change her nightie, and get the bleeding back under control before tucking her back in.

Another 45 minutes pass, and the hysterical cries begin again. This time, I kick the Webmaster out of bed to deal with it. This is a no-go, because she wants Mommy. Mommy finally hauls her tired butt out of bed, and without glasses on, begins to minister to the afflicted nose and crying child. We finally get her calmed down and some Neosporin up her nose again, but it’s clear that she needs to calm down sufficiently to go to sleep so her nose can heal up. So I tuck in with her and hold a cold washcloth on the bridge of her nose while she’s lying down resting. The major bleeding had already stopped, but this helped slow the blood flow and allowed a complete clotting while she didn’t rub at it or otherwise mess with her healing nose.

Finally, totally exhausted, she drifted off to sleep and I was able to tiptoe out and get in my own bed, where the Webmaster was snoring away. I rolled him over to let him know that I was there, and then I collapsed.

Poor Munchkin didn’t wake up until 10 am yesterday morning because she was so worn out, while her brother, totally oblivious to last night’s bloody horror show, awoke with a song in his heart and a cry for a bottle on his lips at 8:30. Of course, it had been well past 3 am when we had finally been able to start some uninterrupted sleep, and neither the Webmaster or I were singing with the birds. Auntie actually came over to hang out for the morning, and she played with the kids while I crashed on the couch through Sesame Street and other morning TV. She also noticed a blood smear on the Munchkin’s sheets, which meant that I had to strip her bed after her nap and remake it before bedtime. Everything went in to soak in ammonia and cold water. The blood came out and everything went into the wash.

Fast-forward to last night/this morning. Girl With Flat Hat is in town, and had come over to dinner at our place. When she’s over, we always stay up really late to chat, and while we were still shooting the breeze, the Munchkin splits the peace of the night with a cry of blood.

It is all over her clean pillowcase, her nightie, and her face. I haul her out of bed and begin the cleanup job while the Webmaster gets the pillowcase soaking. Because we caught it so quickly, the blood comes out in no time at all. Her nightie joins it, and I end up washing them both by hand so I can toss them in the dryer with all the other clean laundry.

After pulling out a long, bloody string of goo from her nose, the bleeding stops. The Munchkin was sitting quietly in her Daddy’s lap while he and Girl With Flat Hat kept chatting, a tissue stuffed up her nose. When I remove it, it’s clear that the worst is over. Girl With Flat Hat takes her leave, while a delighted Munchkin keeps saying, “My bloody nose is gone away!” I treat it with some Neosporin to keep it moisturized and promote the healing, get her into clean pajamas and tuck her back into bed. “Mommy, I need to rest,” she tells me.

Yes, you do, sweetie. We all need to rest.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 24th, 2006 at 12:38 am and is filed under Children, Mommyhood.
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