Take it From Me

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to spend a little time on the internet as I usually do at some point during the day. And as usual I placed Sarah down on the bed in the spare room to "play". She had just started to grab for things, reaching out her little arms to get a hold of whatever she could. I turned my back to the computer and within only a couple of seconds I heard her little legs kicking and kicking. I looked back at her...Oh My Goodness, a moment of panic, she had grabbed the edge of the duvet cover over her face and was kicking frantically to get it off. She obviously couldn't breathe and I moved so quick and grabbed her up out of there, completely embarrassed and upset that I hadn't done a better job of watching her. I apologized to her and felt so guilty! All I could think was, "What if the phone had rung and I went to the next room to answer it?" or, "What if I went downstairs to put in a load of laundry?" ...in both of these normal daily scenarios I would have thought, "Well I don't hear anything through the monitor, maybe she dozed off, she's okay." Both these scenarios would have taken just a few moments but in just that amount of time my life would have changed forever had I not been in the room. I am absolutely convinced she would not have been able to lift off the heavy duvet and would have smothered. As I told Jamie what had happened later that day I started to cry. As I write this now, just the very thought of it breaks my heart into pieces.

But it did make me decide on one thing...
When Sarah was only a few weeks old, I went to her room one morning and noticed she had scooted herself into a new position. I immediately removed the bumper pad around her crib just in case. I was contemplating putting it back on because she had started rolling and kept getting her little feet stuck in the rungs (sp?) of the crib. I thought rolling meant she'd be able to get herself away from the padding if she worked her way into it. But not so, sometimes babies just don't realize in the situation that they can roll, sometimes when they are asleep their brains don't even register that they can't breathe anymore, and even when they can roll one way into danger doesn't mean they can roll themselves out of it. So I'm holding off on adding back the bumper pad until Sarah is a year old or so. I figure a bruised ankle can be fixed, her being smothered is forever.

And why am I telling you all this? I feel like maybe there's someone out there reading who may need to know how a split second of thinking, "Oh it's fine" can change your life forever. There are so many stories in the news of moms leaving their kids in the car just for TWO seconds to run into the house to grab something they forgot, of parents who leave the bathtub for TWO seconds to answer a call, the list goes on and on. And I NEVER thought I would do anything like that, I feel I am so careful to think every moment through. But I like so many others had a momentary lapse and thank GOD I stayed in the room and Sarah was fine.

So please take it from me...take nothing for granted. Your baby is growing and changing so quickly, you may be busy doing your regular house stuff, you may feel like turning your back for just a moment but it's not worth the potential end result...be careful!