A First That I Am NOT So Proud Of

Well, we all survived our first trauma. Julia is fine....before I go any further! Last night, John cooked my favorite dinner for my birthday (grilled salmon). We had just sat down to eat when I put some mango on Julia's highchair tray for her to eat. I got up to grab something in the kitchen and heard the worst crash I have ever heard. The next thing I heard was John SCREAMING a grouping of very ugly words that I don't care to post, nor remember for that matter, and then Julia's bone chilling cry. Her highchair tray had come loose and she fell head first to the ground. She hit my dining room chair on the way down. John had picked her up and put her to his shoulder before I could get there. I looked her over and saw some blood on her face and hands. It was terrifying trying to figure out where the blood was coming from. Come to find out, she had split her lip and it immediately grew to four times its normal size. She also has some scratches between her mouth and nose. She cried and whimpered for about 20 minutes, while I hyperventilated and felt my central nervous system shutting down. Needless to say, neither of us ate a bite of supper.

I gave Julia a dose of Tylenol and got her some ice to suck on. She loves to suck her fingers to comfort herself and of course, she couldn't do that because her mouth hurt so bad. She would scream every time she put her fingers in her mouth. Amazingly, about an hour after the fall, she seemed to be getting back to normal and even ate dinner and had a bottle before bed. The swelling went way down overnight and except for the scratches, you wouldn't know anything happened.

Things I learned from this:

1. They don't put those what I used to think were ridiculous 5 point harnesses in baby stuff for looks. Poor Julia will be 19 and still be strapped in whatever chair she happens to be sitting in.

2. What it feels like to have a nervous breakdown.

3. Chocolate no bake cookies only made me feel better temporarily.....they were not a long-term fix.

4. It's a good thing to keep Valium and a nice bottle of wine at home for parents to resort to when things like this happen.

5. Babies are incredibly resilient.

6. Busted lips appear much worse than they are.

7. Lips heal very quickly.

8. This could have been much worse!

9. John handles trauma with much more grace than I do.

The damage, 24 hours later. She doesn't seem to be too affected!

This was how I found Julia sleeping yesterday afternoon. Her legs were straight out in front of her and her tummy was flat on the bed. She was fast asleep. OUCH! We used to call this a "pancake" back in the day.