It was only a matter of time, actually since she started flipping and kicking her way around. As per the norm, for the past four months, she had been taking her afternoon naps on the living hall sofa with a pillow and various things “fencing” her in. She found a loophole in the form of an unfenced section of her nap area and proceeded to flip right over…the sofa and onto the carpeted floor.
Now the sofa is just a scant two feet off the ground and the carpet makes for a rather soft landing but still, it’s not exactly pleasant being half asleep, flipping over only to find the wind knocked out off you. So she proceeded to let a long wail as I and Nil carried & consoled her. Poor dear cried and cried; and it wasn’t just any normal cry. Yes, after taking care of my daugther for four months, I know how to tell what cry from what cry and this one wasn’t the “I am in pain, make it stop or I’m throwing a tantrum” (like in the flight) but more “I woke up in a rude way and I want to go back to sleep!”.
After she calmed down – heck, she could even smile at us waving her toy monkey at her! – I proceeded to run through the necessaries – check her head, limbs and body for any bruising (changing her diaper at this time was a handy reason for me to undress her), proceeded by a hand-eye coordination check (motor and visual skills). Since it was close to her sleep time at night, we kept a close eye on her every two hours for any possible “silent” injuries. Regular breathing, deep sleep and a few hours later, rooting reflexes during her feed not to mention gurgles and smiles at me showed that she was in tip-top shape with nothing else bruised except for her pride.
We, on the other hand, proceeded to kick into motion some things that I have been thinking of changing since she started flipping. She now naps in her crib (in the room) (or on the mat/carpet outside if she doesn’t like the crib for naps) during the late mornings (*keeps fingers crossed*) and in her bouncer plus swing during the afternoons when it’s warmer in her room. With any luck, I’d have a thickish home-made playmat/quilt for her to sleep and hopefully, we’ll be able to see if we can get a playyard set up for her.
I read that in a way, this is a good sign as active babies who hit milestones early tend to be risk takers when it comes to trying to achieve milestones, and get themselves into hot soup often compared to their quieter babies who take things slow and steady. Not that I’d like for her to get into more accidents, really.
One lesson learnt from this event thought – don’t tell other people about it OR anything else! Because they tend to make it seem worse than it really is. As if I am stupid not to check on her after an accident, super careless and an awful mother for letting her fall…and y’know, there were the two of us there when it happened – how come I am the only one who gets pinned with the blame? Bahhumbug.
December 16th, 2009 at 10:05 am
oh dear..lucky she is ok..my girl fall from the sarong last week…I was so scare, rush to hospital..the doc in the emergecy ward didn’t comfort us instead add insult to the injury, immediately we have her to do a CT scan, lucky she is ok. Yes, I agree not to tell anyone yet before checking on the baby..I make a mistake telling my mom, she was panic with loud scream..haiz..
Mabel Reply:
December 18th, 2009 at 8:10 am
Hey, luckily your gal is okay too!
I find that people who are that insensitive are usually those without children OR those who haven’t been with babies for a longggg time.
It’s not as if we all go out to purposely hurting our children – that’s why it’s called an “accident”. Sheesh.