About a week ago, Kev said "You know, I almost hate to say this because it might jynx us, but... I'm surprised neither of us has dropped her yet."
Well.
Now I have.
In the middle of the night, up again to feed her, hadn't slept much yet, got her out of her crib. She started to cry. I sat down in the glider. The boppy had been cast to the side in the last middle of the night feeding. I reached to the left for the boppy. She twisted dramatically to the right and then it happened. She dropped to the ground. Not a far drop, and onto carpeting, but still. She landed at least partially on her head. I cried out. She was quiet for a moment and then started to wail. Kevin came running. She cried. I cried. Kev hugged both us and soothed us. I started feeding her and she calmed right down. I realized she wasn't even as angry as she can be. Strange. We did some web research, examined her head and there were no bumps. She was falling asleep while eating, but rousing easily. She was not groggy. She seemed quite normal.
So when she was good and asleep again we put her back in the crib.
And went on with our on again, off again night.
I think she's fine. But boy was that scary. I felt awful.
Feel free to share your stories... Sigh.
25 comments:
Whew. Glad you're all three ok.
And you asked for it...A was still pretty small, still on the oxygen (we just dragged the tube from the large tank) and the stupid monitor (had to carry the monitor with her while dragging its wires). I was hungry, and was warming up a dish of spaghetti in the microwave.
Holding her, I reached to pull the spaghetti out of the microwave with the other hand. As I pulled it out, hurrying because it was hotter than I expected, she wiggled. Racing through my brain, the following thoughts: don't drop the baby! Don't spill the spaghetti! It will burn her if it gets on her! Ack! The spaghetti dropped and went SPLAT all over the floor, A sort-of dropped/slid down my body, and I caught her by her head (!). The monitor strap stayed on my shoulder. Ugh.
She was fine, if a bit messy. The dish didn't even break, and my heartrate slowed down within a couple of hours.
Thanks, Esperanza! How VERY scary that must have been for you! So glad you two are o.k.!
It helps to hear other moments like this so much. So so much. Thank you for sharing. Others?
Oh, I totally dropped K. More than once, and she's fine. Better than fine! The first and most traumatic (for me) drop came when she was really young--first visit home to my parents--maybe about 7-8 weeks old. I got up with her in the middle of the night and went downstairs to the living room to nurse her and give her daddy some rest. I was tired, too, and must've just drifted off, because I was woken up by a soft thud (gasp!) and a startled baby cry. She'd basically just rolled/slid off my lap to the floor a foot below, carpeted, but I berated myself forever about it, even though she was fine AS SOON AS I picked her up and started to nurse her again. I blamed new-mom-applesauce-for-brains-and-sleep-deprivation.
As I said, she's totally fine. It happens to all of us. Just wait till the first trip to the ER for some completely normal childhood accident. Then it get really fun!
A friend of mine fell down the stairs holding her baby, which just sounded unbelievably scary to me. Baby was fine, but Mom actually went into shock and had to have an ambulance phoned for her.
Glad you and she are ok!
I have dropped both of mine, and they don't appear to have any permanent scars from it....It is scary, though - and more so in the middle of the night when you are so not with it and going on autopilot...a little wriggle and then it's oops!
Glad you are all okay....How did yesterday go for K? I hope it went well....
Oh, and if it makes you feel any better, yesterday was one of the absolute worst days every with my C. - nothing really major, no injuries (to any of us), but just one thing after another.... dumping water on her tights (somehow not her dress) just moments before we were to leave for church, running away from me and into the next block, giggling the whole way, when we got home from church, and then dumping almost a whole large box of baking soda into the bathroom sink along with other items from the bathroom - As I said, thankfully we are all safe, today has been a better day, and some days as a mom are just like that.....
I dropped Annalivia while still in the hospital about 12 hours after she was born. I had sent Dennis home to get some stuff and was by myself. Annalivia was swaddled and lying on my chest and I was sitting in an upright chair. I nodded off (it HAD been sort of a tiring 24 hours) and she rolled onto the floor. It was so traumatic. A high-strung nurse ran in and x-rayed her and I sobbed and sobbed. Dennis showed up to me sobbing, the baby gone, the nurses rushing around... poor guy.
And then I dropped Daniel, too. I was feeding him in a glider and, again, fell asleep and he rolled off the arm of the glider. I woke up to him on the carpeted floor. He didn't cry. I did.
I'll probably drop Emmeliese, too.
So far, the kids have been fine. They're a little weird, but that could just be genetics. :)
i got dropped on my head when i was a wee one, from my stroller, i was tipped over and out on my head i came. i turned out alright. i am sure she is fine:)
I dropped Ned on his head. Well, actually, I let him fall back on his head from a (very unstable, as it turned out) sitting position when he was about three months old.
I can still remember the appalling sound of the "CLUNK."
Dear one, it's ok. We are made very durable.
Well there is the family story where Laurie was wailing in her play pen. I dropped a can of soup into her play pen that landed on her head cuz I decided she was hungry...
I also remember Richard falling to the floor through his cradle when the bottem of the cradle fell out.
And then there is the story of ME tumbling head first down Bamma's scary basement stairs. (Remember those stairs?)
Just another story for C to add on later :)
I wonder if children had to evolve to survive being dropped - it sounds like it happens to everyone! But a scary experience, nonetheless. You're a great mom, S. :)
wow, all! these are SO helpful.
april, oh my goodness... i can imagine... the exhaustion... the hormones... the horror... i'm so sorry that happened. love the image of daniel on the floor totally chill. totally get you crying in all cases.
abby's mom- you crack me up. i didn't remember those stories.
Thank you all. Any more out there?
As my daughter is adopted and was past the infant stage, she was a toddler. She climbed up and onto everything. And one day I went to her daycare to pick her up, and she had a huge knot and nasty bruise on her forehead. The daycare provider was freaked out saying I don't know what I was thinking, I didn't call you, and I let her take a nap. She had fallen off a patio swing head first onto the cement floor.
Needless to say we went straight to the emergency room, watched her get skull x-rays, and then the waiting for the results was the worst part. The results all came back good. Then they sent us home with this scary form about what to watch for over the next few days - nerves all over again.
But, she's amazing and stubborn, and thankfully hard-headed.
i was JUST talking about this yesterday with a friend! we have learned the hard way that kids are resilient....ben rolled off of our bed and landed on his head on the wood floor-i think he was about 6 mos old. when we brought josh home from the hospital he was laying in my lap as ben clambered up to see him, josh rolled right off my lap, and although i caught him before he hit the floor i remember thinking they would take him away because i couldn't handle two!
i am surprised gracie's head is still on, considering all of the times that the boys (mostly josh)have picked her up and plunked her back down quickly, often head first when he hears me coming!
i am so afraid of a disaster on our stairs-we didn't have any in olean when the boys were babies-only a matter of time, i'm sure!
thankfully these incidents are usually harder on us!
sent some things for c last week-hope she can use some of it.
ps i think gracie might be teething too! chomping on my knuckle like crazy!
Glad to hear you are fine. I haven't dropped mine, yet. My husband slipped on the stairs while taking her sleeping to bed while I was in the other room, I heard a thud and yelled, "is everyone okay?" His tailbone was hurt, but he caught her and she slept right through it.
While we were taking a bath, however, in the big person tub as she can sit up unassisted, she leaned forward and inhaled a bunch of water and started to gag as well as hit her head on the tub wall. I was very scared. But we all survived. A few hours later we were grateful to hear her loud screaming cry because we knew her lungs were clear.
And another thought... this song came floating into my consciousness as I read all these posts:
Sorry that your mother
dropped you on your head
Maybe her mother dropped her too
In the end we all get dropped
We all get black and blue
Can I get an amen?
(Carly Simon, "Didn't I?")
ok, your mother here, you were about 9 months or so we were in the gordon Place house, Bama called, I carried you into bedroom to answer phone, as I held you and talked with her you somehow leaned out or rolled and fell clunk on your head. I said, "Oh, my God, I have to go, she had her the clunk, so called back later. You comforted quickly. Then there was Mother's Day at your beloved camp, place of your wedding It SNOWED I first put you in a hooded zip up the back sweater and caught your hair, then I put a jacket over that and that zipper caught your neck! With your sister , it was placing her in carriage and turning my back only to have carriage roll down slightly inslined driveway and tip over flipping her and blankets on her back on ground. I think Daniel did most of his without my help, save for the famous burns of 6 months when he grabbed the tea cup. My first head assault came as a 6 day old, when my brother greeted me with a good kick to my head and then a couple of months later when in an effort to see me, he tipped the bassinet over. such memories! Love Mom
Since truth will out. Laurie is the only one I dropped. Well, didn't actually drop her, it was more that she was barfing and I was trying to get her to the bathroom and I slipped on it and fell with her. She was fine, cradled in my arms. My elbow was smashed tho. Why I didn't just let her continue on the already soiled sheet I'll never know. The worst tho, was a friend in Italy who was about 6' 6" was holding his baby in an infant carrier 60's vintage at about chest level and flipped her right out and onto a concrete floor. Our kids survive in spite of us. I never will forget seeing Jenny cartwheel down the basement stairs. I think what saved her was all the crap all along the sides of the stairs and piled at the bottom. Don't feel too guilty. This is just the beginning. She is growing so fast. Such a cutie. Much love, GAS.
yes, there certainly are some dramatic stories in our family, aren't there? and in everyone's. this one pales in comparison.
thanks for sharing all. more are welcome if people are so inclined.
When ManChild was about a month old, I took him to the mall for the first time so I could walk around in air conditioning and get some exercise (it was the dreadful drought of 1987 and about 100 degrees outside.)
It was so blazing hot outside when I went to put him back in the car that I buckled his car seat in really, really fast. (It was a one-piece "bucket seat" kind of a deal that had to be re-buckled to the car every time I took him in or out.)
The car was not air conditioned, so I peeled out of there kind of fast, and on the first turn, heard a horrible "Thump!". I pulled off the road and saw the car seat lying upside down on the car floor WITH MY CHILD IN IT! He did not make a peep and I just knew the worst had happened. I began screaming, turned the car seat over, and he was sound asleep. Of course he woke up because I was screaming my head off.
He will be 22 in a few months.
wow, cheese! how scary! and what a tough baby!
Thought I was the only one! Several times while nursing Sam in the middle of the night when he was really little I fell asleep and he slid/jerked(in his sleep) out of my arms onto the floor (from our bed). The sleep deprivation is SO hard. I really feel for you (we still don't always get enough sleep around here). Sometimes I really wonder what God was thinking in designing the whole baby sleep/eat system. Guess we're not really meant to sleep on beds? Pallets on the floor, perhaps? Also, in response to your other posts...Sam was never colicky, but he always had a really fussy time in the evening, and I remember that the fussiness really toned down around 6 months. It was like he really came into his own at that point and became quite pleasant. Anyway, Caroline keeps life interesting, right :-) Emily
isn't it so nice to know we're not the only ones, em? thanks for your encouragement.
Well, I have no baby-dropping stories. (Yet.) But years ago, when my youngest brother was about 5, he and two friends were messing around with a small tape recorder, running around the house and shouting things which they would then replay and collapse in fits of laughter. Said tape recorder belonged to the friends.
At some point in their chasing, my brother was carrying the tape recorder in his pocket, and he fell down the stairs. As adults, we still have fits of giggles over the taped dialogue which followed.
(Sounds of brother falling down the stairs.)
Brother lands at foot of stairs.
Brother: Ooowww...(groaning) (he was fine, by the way).
Friends, standing at top of stairs: Dude?
Brother: Oowww...
Friends: Is the tape recorder okay?
Priorities. Everyone needs them.
Ok, not a baby story but you got me to remembering! Terry came down to Virginia with Todd and Wendy. Todd and Richard slept on the bunk beds in Richards room, Todd on top. They got to messing around and there was a loud crash and Todd's bed fell thru and on top of Richard. Todd was crying and Richard was laughing. He could't understand why Todd was crying - he was on top! Fortunately no injuries but alot of laughs. Your times will come. xo's GAS
i just LOVE all these comments! (even though many of the stories are SCARY.) THANK YOU ALL!
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