Little trooper

I've always known I would not do well in an emergency situation but until now I had never really been tested. Emery took care of that for me yesterday. We were having a playdate with Sophia and Andrew. Michelle and I were outside with them. The kiddie pool was out. The kids were watering the flowers, the dog and each other. Andrew and Emery needed to be big like the older kids and climb the stairs into the play house above the swingset. There was a gap where the monkey bars are and I had decided enough was enough and I would close the gap with a baby gate until Tim could get some boards up so we didn't have any accidents. HA! I was in the play house doing just that when Emery decided to climb up the stairs. Michelle saw Emery and went to make sure she made it to the top. At that moment, our dog Kaiya must have decided 'what fun! let's all go!' and bolted up the stairs, knocking Emery through the gap between the stairs. She probably fell about 4 or 5 feet. Michelle tells me she even hung on for a second and slowed herself down. I heard Michelle say "Oh no! Emery!". I saw her fall out of the corner of my eye. I turned and ran down the stairs. She was screaming and we both thought, 'oh good, she's crying'. Crying is good when a kid falls on their head. It means they are conscious. But then Michelle picked Emery up and she was facing me. My stomach dropped and my legs felt weak. I remember screaming "I can see her skull!, My GOD! I can see her skull!" She had landed on the sprinkler head underneath the swingset. There was blood. A lot of blood. Head wounds are like that. I carried her to the deck, a million panicky thoughts racing through my head. I pressed a towel to her head. I heard Michelle saying "I'm calling 911, I'm calling." And I said No! I'll just drive her! See...not good with emergencies. I was crying, Emery was crying and I could hear the sirens. Over and over I said to myself, "she's crying, she's okay, she's crying, that's good." The paramedics arrived, put her on a backboard and stabilized her head, a precaution for neck injuries, because of the height of the fall. She fought them the whole time. She fell asleep in the ambulance on the way to Primary Childrens. It was the longest 20 minutes of my life. She needed to be sedated for suturing and it took 4 of us holding her down to get the IV in. She's a strong kid. The Doctor said there would be three layers of sutures. I figured skin and muscle and asked, so what's the third layer? "There's a layer of fascia that covers the skull" he said. "I'll fix that first." Then the nurse turned to me and said, "so when you said you saw her skull, you were right." Gee thanks. I will forgive Kaiya way before I forgive myself.