Do you want the short version, or the long one?

Short version: I made my son bleed, and I may just do it again.

Long version: About two weeks ago I was nursing Jason. I switched him from one side to the other, when to my horror, I noticed he had blood smeared all over his cheek. Fighting the urge to panic, I tried to think logically. I hadn't heard him cry at all, and he didn't seem uncomfortable in the least, so perhaps he wasn't the one bleeding. I wiped the blood away and sure enough, his cheek was healthy and unmarred underneath it. But if he wasn't bleeding, then it had to be me. I remembered reading how nursing can be painful, and even cause cracked or bleeding nipples and for the past few days I had finally ditched the nipple shield I had been using since bringing Jason home from the hospital. So I checked myself, but still failed to locate the source of the blood.

Then I remembered that I had just been cutting Jason's fingernails while nursing him, since it's the time he will hold relatively still. He hadn't cried while I was cutting them, and I didn't recall seeing any blood when I cut them, but I looked down, and two fingernails were covered with blood. But once I wiped it away, I noticed they weren't actually bleeding, and the source still eluded me.

Then I flipped his hand over and caught sight of his thumb. The whole corner was pooled with fresh blood. I wiped it away, and it pooled up again, rather quickly too. Instantly the thought, "I'm such a horrible mother" ran through my mind. Then I remembered the time I rubbed his head raw in the bathtub trying to get the best of his would-be cradle cap (which has never come back by the way... though neither has his hair!) and the thought quickly became "World's most horrible mother!"

I remembered thinking that the corner on his thumb nail still seemed a little sharp, so I would just clip it down a little more. That had been my mistake. As I scrambled to find a band-aid, I vowed I would never risk cutting his nails short again. Unable to find one small enough to patch up a baby's finger, I was getting worried until a friend informed me I could cut a larger bandage in half and make it smaller. Genius! Now why couldn't I have been blessed with practical common sense like that as a new mom?

So the thumb healed, no signs of scarring except on my heart, and I had officially decided to leave Jason's nails a little longer, but blood-free.

A few days went by, and Jason had one of his better nights. With that extra little bit of sleep, I was feeling pretty good and had managed to forget that I was the world's most horrible mother. I picked my son up from his crib and we sat on the couch together to nurse. Then I caught sight of Jason's face up close, and the title came flooding back to mind. A myriad of tiny little red scratches covered his left cheek, there was another down his nose and two long scratches went down the length of his right cheek. My baby looked like he had been in a cat fight and lost. Child Protection Services could likely take him away from me on account that I appeared to have hired Edward Scissorhands to babysit. It was much worse than the pictures below indicate. My plan to not risk cutting his nails too short had backfired.
So it appears that I am left with two options - give his nails the short version and risk accidentally hurting my son myself or give his nails the long version and let my son accidentally scratch himself. (Jason gnaws on his hands too much to make mittens a viable long-term solution). Since I'd rather my heart scar than his face, I guess we'll go with option one. I'll just keep the scissors and band-aids close to the clippers from now on.