The Nail Cutting Incident

Ugh. I’ve been cutting the girls’ nails since they were born. I use a pair of nail scissors since I find them more precise than the baby nail clippers that we also have. Every time I cut their nails, I know I’m running the risk that I’m going to cut more than just their nails. It was especially scary at the beginning when they were really small. Anyway, it finally happened–I cut Miranda’s finger tip.

Before you all think that I’m a monster for taking pictures of Miranda after hurting her, this picture was taken about two weeks ago and has nothing to do with this nail cutting incident. One crying picture looks much like the others though.

Anyway, I was cutting Miranda’s nails and, as usual, I was double-checking that all that was between the scissor blades was fingernail. I got to the thumb and before I cut I knew that I also had some skin in there, so I repositioned the scissors. I snipped and immediately knew that it was still wrong. There was a beat, and then Miranda started bawling. I held her for a bit until she stopped crying and then checked her hand. It was bleeding so I applied direct pressure, which of course made her cry again. The cut wasn’t serious, but it still took a little time to stop bleeding.

We put a bandage on Miranda’s thumb and covered that hand with a mitten. We held that arm out of the way when we gave her a bath later, and we checked that the bandage still looked fine just before we put her to bed. Later, around midnight when I was going to bed, I checked in on Miranda again to make sure she hadn’t irritated the cut. The mitten was off and the bandage was stuck to her face. I gently pulled it off of her cheek, and since she seemed to be completely sound asleep, I didn’t bother trying to replace it.

This morning, her thumb looked a little pink where the skin was cut, but other than that, it looked fine. I still feel so bad though.