Vera fell off her cot 2 nights ago. And mommy has every reason to be blamed for it. How did it happen? Aren't we supposed to pull up the railing when she sleeps? How could we be so careless?
Mommy's guilty as charged.
A couple of factors all added up. Usually, I'm the one who gets up intermittently through the night each time Vera sounds off that she needs to be turned. Either because she's heated up on one side, or because of nose blockage. That night, for some reason, I went to sleep in another room. Vera seldom moves like she did months ago, turning 90 degrees in her cot, so it really never occurred to us to pull up the railing. Also, to help keep her milk down during night feedings, her cot is slightly elevated, slanting towards the movable railing of the cot.
The little girl must have wriggled to be turned, all the way until her legs were hanging off the bed. And all this while, Daddy didn't hear a thing. He's not a light sleeper like me.
At 330am, I was awakened by The Thud. It was so loud I heard it from the room down the hallway. It was every parent's worst nightmare. In the dark, I fumbled to see what happened. "She fell off her cot," Ian said. He had already picked her up from the floor. By then, she was wailing. In the dark, I saw blood on Ian's T-shirt. I panicked. "Oh no, she's bleeding...what have we done?" I call Dr B. It was 4am. She told me to put cold compress on her mouth to stop the bleeding before bringing her to the hospital. In a blur, we packed her bag and sped down.
Please God, don't let her head be injured, please, please. Vera finally calmed down in the car, or finally awakened momentarily from the shock. In the bright light at the A&E, we saw that her upper lip frenulum - the soft tissue linking gum to upper lip - was torn. She must have fell head down and the upper jaw took the fall. We fed her and soon she was asleep. In the car ride home, she recoiled several times as if in aftershock.
The past two days have been pretty stressful. She's vomitted 5 times in a day, probably because she's been crying too much. Her upper lip is bruised and blue-black as she's experiences real pain for the first time. Mr. Mucus is back with a vengeance (or did he even go away) and she sleeps fitfully because she can barely breathe through the blockage.
She's stopped standing like she used to in our arms, stopped smiling, and stopped touching her lips with her fingers (her favourite pasttime).
Although there may be no head injury, what I'm afraid of is that there could have been some impact on her spine. We'll be bringing her to a Chiropractor to find out. Fingers doubly crossed.
5 comments:
ohhh poor little baby! that looks painful :( i remember the first time kaiya took a spill off of my bed (yes it has happened more than once...)
i hope the little princess starts feeling better soon! let us know what the chiropractor says.
Oh, I'm sorry she fell, and that you feel it's your faults! We've had Mal fall off the couch twice (notice how I wrote that, carefully avoiding saying we LET her fall). The recent time was shortly after her lip/nose surgery, so it looked pretty bad and bled, too.
And she's survived. And today I was thinking, as I propped her quite close to a not-so-sturdy side rail thing on the edge of our bed (that needs to be replaced if she's going to hang on our bed sometimes), that today could be another fall if I am not more careful!
You know, I never gave a thought to Mal's spine ... I just thought we needed a head CT to see if she'd injured her brain! Now, I sure don't need more things to fixate on when something happens again (as I feel sure it will, some day)....
How funny that you have a Dr. B, too! Remember that our Dr. B wrote a comment something to the effect that it's a rite of passage for us parents. Falling off the bed is one of the glorious "normal" things you get to experience with your Vera. Isn't it fun being a mommy? All the sweet guilt feelings?
Ok, so Connie beat me to the dr. B line. I know how guilty you are feeling. I was sure twice now that I had cause some sort of damage to Annabel. When she was just like 7mths. she got hit square in the face with a volleyball(coming off a spike) at one of her big sisters game. I rush out of the gym crying and screaming to my other children to call the dr. and tell him we were on the way to the E.R. He laughed at me in a nice way and said just watch for certain signs. I was sure if not damage to her head that I had certainly detached the retina or something in her eyes.
The second accident came when she had never rolled anywhere before, not even to her side. I place her on an island in my utility room to get her ready for her bath in a large sink that we have. We have concrete floors with very hard tile and she fell straight off. I turned around to see an empty counter and I began the screaming again. I was sure this time I had cracked her skull. Again I was told not to go to the E.R. just watch for signs.
It looks like we have a club of guilty mommies! So maybe our babies are just really normal and do normal things??? Hoping that you will feel less guilt soon, but I sooooooooo understand! HOping this Mr. Mucos goes far away and stays gone.
ooooooooo Vera Vera.... ouch! i feel for you! And yes, like the other mommies say, it does feel like it IS a rite of passage for all babies to fall off the bed- a friend of miine has a 9-month old baby who's fallen off FIVE times - gosh but that sure won't salve any guilt-ridden mommies' heart! I had mine leap off the bed once in search of a raisin box he had thrown. Ouch. Again, i highly recommend ARNICA - it's a homeopathic cream that seems to do wonders for bruises and bumps - not for open wounds though. Hope Vera get well soon.
Thanks Mommas for sharing your own "adventures"...yeah, I better get used to being scared outta my pants once in a while. I was thinking it'd be a trisomy related rush-to-the-hospital, but not this! So yes, must learn not to underestimate my little-moving girl. She can spring a surprise!
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