My Most Terrifying "Mommy Moment" or Head Wounds Sure Bleed A Lot

I have two children.  My daughter, Haley,  is six years old; she'll be seven next May.  My son, Parker, is four years old and will be five come January.  So I've been a mother for just over six years.  In that time, sure there have been a few injuries - a scrape here, a cut there, a splinter (or six) - but nothing very serious.  Parker once knocked a big place out of his face between his eyes by falling off the pew at church and hitting the rack on the pew in front of us that holds the hymnals.  He's still got a scar there.  Then there was the time he rammed his tooth through his mouth; still a scar from that one too.  Haley once cut her eyeball with a piece of paper, and we took her to the emergency room, only to discover that things were fine and the eyes heal very quickly.  Of course, there was the time the kids were running like wild animals around the yard and slammed right into each other, busting Haley's lip pretty good, which then swelled up to about twice its usual size.  As you can see, all injuries have been slight.  Not much blood involved, and overal, not a great deal of pain.  There were tears aplenty, but in the end everything was alright.

These injuries certainly didn't prepare me for my most terrifying mommy moment yesterday evening.  Haley and Parker were outside jumping on our trampoline with one of the girls I take care of in the afternoons after school.  I had all the windows open in the house, because it was such a beautiful day outside, and I was sitting in our living room talking to the two older girls I take care of.  Suddenly I hear both Haley and Parker screaming and crying, and I know instantly that these are "hurt cries"; real hurt cries.  If you're a mother you know what I mean.  If you're a dog owner you'll understand too.  You get to know your dog's barks.  You know what an "intruder" bark sounds like; you know what a "let's play" bark is like; you know the "I need to go out and pee" bark; etc.  Same thing with kids.  I know what their cries are - the fake ones, the real ones, the slightly hurt ones, etc.  These were hurt cries - hurt and scared.

I jump up and run out the front door and onto the front porch.  Parker is in the lead running around the corner of the house from the trampoline.  He's holding his chin and screaming and crying for all he's worth.  Haley's in bethind him, coming more slowly, and holding the side of her head.  Parker gets to me, and I pick him up, asking what happened and what's wrong.  Then I look at Haley and blood is all over her shirt, the side of her face, her hair, her head, and it's still pouring from the side of her head.  I mean literally pouring - dripping everywhere.  She's screaming and bawling and saying her head hurts.  I cannot even begin to describe my feelings at that moment - fear, concern, worry, terror.

I'll spare everyone all the details, but it took me like an hour to get the kids calmed down and cleaned up.  Took even longer to get myself calmed down.  Parker has a pretty good sized chunk out of his chin, and Haley has a rather large gash in her head.  I'm still wondering if she might need stitches or something.  I was sure we'd need to take them to the emergency room, but hubby convinced me that they were probably okay.  All that blood was just so terrifying.  I'm not squeamish or anything like that, and I'm usually pretty calm in an emergency situation, but the sight of all that blood pouring from my little girl's head is a sight I hope to never see again.