Well, one of my most dreaded "Mom Moments" has happened. Sort of. I say "sort of" because it ended up being okay even though it was awful.
Last Friday, Andrew was home working (yes - he had to work the entire holiday weekend) so I took Sadie to the park with my friend and her son. For the first time, I decided to let Sadie climb up the tall play structure to the slide without me hovering over/near/under her. Can you guess what happened next? Yeah. Kaboom.
She fell. She fell about 6 and a half feet onto sand and that packed rubber stuff they use at playgrounds now (thank God.) She somehow twisted or flipped over in midair and landed mostly on her back. I ran to her, totally panicked. Do I move her? Do we call 911? What if she broke something? Which hospital is closest?
The incident is still mostly a blur in my mind - somewhere between that freaky slow motion when something bad is happening that you can't control and those jarring, jerky, nightmarish images that still make my stomach churn on recall.
My friend called 911 who dispatched a ladder truck and a fire rescue truck, so there was quite the fanfare for the other kids at the park. The extent of her injuries were getting the wind knocked out of her and biting her tongue pretty severely in 2 places. She was significantly scared, but wasn't hysterical, which is pretty amazing. She cried pretty hard for a few minutes but then just sat in my lap sort of whimpering. There was a mom who is also an MD in the crowd at the park, so she came over and introduced herself and checked Sadie out, which was really nice and helped me start to calm down.
At some point I called Andrew and he raced over to be with us. He was undoubtedly reliving his brother's fall some 30 years ago which was particularly traumatic for all involved. We were lucky enough not to need an ambulance, a trip to the ER for stitches or worse. It was actually relatively easy for me to keep this accident in perspective because a friend of mine's daughter just recently had a much, much worse fall which ended up in a helicopter ride to the county hospital.
I am immensely thankful that my friend was there to deal with calling for help. Thank you, KLo. I am grateful to the kind doctor/mom who came to our aid. But mostly I'm just thankful to the "powers that be" for getting us through our first injury emergency.
Sadie is most thankful for the popsicles she got to eat for the next few days
(doesn't look like much, but trust me - those were deep cuts. Ow.)
and for the new toy that a very nice fire medic woman gave to her as they were all leaving.
Meet Pearl the Panda:
One step forward in terms of parenting notches on my belt (I guess) but about three steps back for me in terms of me letting her climb on anything by herself for a while. Sigh.
Last Friday, Andrew was home working (yes - he had to work the entire holiday weekend) so I took Sadie to the park with my friend and her son. For the first time, I decided to let Sadie climb up the tall play structure to the slide without me hovering over/near/under her. Can you guess what happened next? Yeah. Kaboom.
She fell. She fell about 6 and a half feet onto sand and that packed rubber stuff they use at playgrounds now (thank God.) She somehow twisted or flipped over in midair and landed mostly on her back. I ran to her, totally panicked. Do I move her? Do we call 911? What if she broke something? Which hospital is closest?
The incident is still mostly a blur in my mind - somewhere between that freaky slow motion when something bad is happening that you can't control and those jarring, jerky, nightmarish images that still make my stomach churn on recall.
My friend called 911 who dispatched a ladder truck and a fire rescue truck, so there was quite the fanfare for the other kids at the park. The extent of her injuries were getting the wind knocked out of her and biting her tongue pretty severely in 2 places. She was significantly scared, but wasn't hysterical, which is pretty amazing. She cried pretty hard for a few minutes but then just sat in my lap sort of whimpering. There was a mom who is also an MD in the crowd at the park, so she came over and introduced herself and checked Sadie out, which was really nice and helped me start to calm down.
At some point I called Andrew and he raced over to be with us. He was undoubtedly reliving his brother's fall some 30 years ago which was particularly traumatic for all involved. We were lucky enough not to need an ambulance, a trip to the ER for stitches or worse. It was actually relatively easy for me to keep this accident in perspective because a friend of mine's daughter just recently had a much, much worse fall which ended up in a helicopter ride to the county hospital.
I am immensely thankful that my friend was there to deal with calling for help. Thank you, KLo. I am grateful to the kind doctor/mom who came to our aid. But mostly I'm just thankful to the "powers that be" for getting us through our first injury emergency.
Sadie is most thankful for the popsicles she got to eat for the next few days
(doesn't look like much, but trust me - those were deep cuts. Ow.)
and for the new toy that a very nice fire medic woman gave to her as they were all leaving.
Meet Pearl the Panda:
One step forward in terms of parenting notches on my belt (I guess) but about three steps back for me in terms of me letting her climb on anything by herself for a while. Sigh.
4 comments:
Oh Janine, do I understand. You are an amazing mother...this is all part of this journey, right? Silvio feel off of a changing table 6 months back onto a tile floor. I did not strp him...I was feeling quite spectacular. The beautiful thing is, is that we try to make the best choices, but we just can't always control the outcome. You ROCK...and little Sadie is an incredible example of that. And would you PLEASE join us on a girls' night??? I would love to see you!!
I'm such a bad mom.
And that little tongue looks bad! OUCH!!! Poor girl!
One time my daughter fell about 6 feet off a bunk bed headfirst onto a cement floor. THAT was awesome.
Have you gotten the "geting puked on in public" badge yet? If not, I bet that one's next for you.
Oh wow, Janine! I had no idea! How horrific! These incidents are your worst nightmares come true. Once again, thank god for "pliable" baby bodies, short term memory (for Sadie, hopefully!) and Guardian Angels!
It happens to the best of us, so I hope you didn't bang yourself up too much over this.
It's also good to know that the community spirit is still around! I hope Sadie will heal relatively quickly. Those tongue scars look pretty nasty. Give her a BIG hug and a kiss from us!
B
So glad your girl is okay, and btw, those cuts on her tongue looke pretty majore to me. Yikes.
Yesterday, Avi was cruising around on this awful toy car and flipped over to fall hard on the wood floor. No joke, he has a bruise along his spine. I threw the toy in the back of the closet. No more of that.
It's so hard to find a balance between trust and supported guidance. You do a beatiful job. Thank you for sharing.
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