The other night my poor baby boy came up stairs crying because he had a bloody nose.  I took him into the bathroom and sat him on my lap while I pinched his nose for some period of time that seemed like an eternity but may have been less than a minute.   Jack told me that I was pinching too hard and that he was fine and wanted to go back to bed.   I thought, “Wow!  He recovered from that scare so quickly.  What a big boy.”  Because I remember sort of freaking out about bloody noses as a kid.  Of course Jack has more experience with them, living in this dry air, and living with an older brother who occasionally “hits him too hard with a pillow accidentally.”

I took Jack back to bed, tucked him in, laid there for a second until he screamed, “IT’S HAPPENING AGAIN” and I bolted awake and pinched his nose again.  Some indeterminate amount of time later, he patted my arm and said, “That’s good, Mom.  I’ll lay down and come get you if I need you.”

I trotted off to bed like a good little mommy, shaking my head at my big boy and his calm maturity.

I got in bed, closed my eyes and slept for 5-10 seconds before hearing, “MOM!  MY NOSE IS BLEEDING AGAIN!!!”

This third nose bleed (ok, I am sure it was just a continuation of the first one) is the one that woke me all the way up.  This time, instead of being in awe of the way my 3 year old can take charge of a situation I thought, “WHY AM I LISTENING TO A THREE YEAR OLD?  Who is in charge here?”  Not him, and certainly not me.  So I turned to my good and loyal friend, my constant companion, the internet.  It turns out, you are supposed to pinch a bloody nose for 10 minutes.  Not a random about of time, or until your 3 year old gets bored, and you both just really want to go back to sleep.  It’s 10 minutes people.

Jack and I sat on the couch, and I pinched his nose for 10 minutes by the clock on the microwave.  Then we all went to bed and slept until morning.  Thanks, internet.