I was making beer batter for some beer-battered onion rings we'll be enjoying later tonight and stopped to check on my little girl. I had put her in her little vibrating chair in the other room in order to help her relax a bit after feeding, hoping she might go to sleep so I could get some work done around the house. She had stopped making fussy noises a few minutes previously so I figured I'd come look at the cute sleeping baby.
So, I came out of the kitchen to a quiet baby staring out the window.
That doesn't quite capture the moment. Let me try again:
I came out of the kitchen to a quiet unmoving baby with half-lidded, unblinking eyes staring glazedly out the window into the light. A baby doing a perfect impression of "play dead."
She's done this before of course; all babies are great at scaring their parents and I've come up with a fool-proof test to prove to myself that she's absolutely fine without really disturbing her very much. I rushed up to her and put my pinkie finger into her open left hand expecting to be quickly reassured when her grip reflex kicked in.
It didn't. Her tiny hand lay limply around my finger.
Panic hit and it hit hard. With one hand I took her by the shoulder and I yelled her name. Immediately she started flailing and crying because daddy had scared her.
I've never been more happy to hear her cry.
Now, oblivious to the heart attack she gave her dear old dad, she's sound asleep again in her chair and I don't want to let her out of my sight. I have things to do around the house but they can wait while I stare at her to watch and make sure she's okay.
I would laugh at you if i would not have done the same thing.
ReplyDeleteI think every parent has probably gone through the same thing and will completely understand. I've had minor scares from her already in the past 6 weeks but this one was the worst!
DeleteJust thinking about it gets my heart racing. It freaked me right out.
Oh man, been there, while not exactly the same scenario. How about when your 3 year old is playing hide and seek with you and doesn't tell you. You wonder why he is so quiet all of a sudden and don't see him immediately in one of the three rooms he can get to. In a panic you look all over the house, in every conceivable nook, crack and cranny and then it hits you. He got out the door, down the stairs is playing traffic. But wait, the dead bolt is still closed on both doors, the windows are all locked and secured. This house is literally 100sq feet in 5 rooms, where the heck can have have gone. You scream his name in an outright panic to which he responds with a little giggle. The little brat is hiding underneath a dinning room chair and where a hooded sweat shirt is draping over the sides to conceal the body. He thought it was a great joke, right up until I held him tightly to me for about 10 minutes.
ReplyDeleteI am certain, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that she will give me a similar scare in the coming years.
DeleteKnowing it ahead of time won't help at all with the pending trip to the emergency room for my blood pressure and arteries exploding, I'm guessing?
When my Amy was 2 weeks old, she slept through the night for the first time. Well, from midnight to 4:30 AM, which was close enough. Her father and I woke up in a panic when we realized we'd been asleep for more than 45 minutes in one go, raced for the crib screaming her name. She was extremely annoyed with us, and cried for an hour. What a BEAUTIFUL sound it was at that moment!
ReplyDeleteHeh. Yeah, I can relate to that as well which is why I came up with the reflex test first; since their hands will curl over any object placed in it whether they're awake or asleep it's a quick and easy way for me to test if she's okay without waking her up.
DeleteApparently it doesn't work all the time.