Even though we're about as qualified to be parents as Levi Johnston and Bristol Palin, my wife and I have gone a year without any major baby-related accidents.Until this past Saturday when Luke fell off the bed face first. Before I continue-- HE'S FINE.
He had a purple bump on his forehead for a few days, which made him look like a tiny Mikhail Gorbachev, but he's perfectly healthy. We, on the other hand, aren't doing so great. It doesn't matter who was in the room with him at the time of the fall (to be fair, we did tell our cat Lola to keep a paw on him). The aftemath of said fall was a lot of tears and wailing, by Luke and by us. What we've realized since then, however, is how common this is. Quite literally, every parent we've spoken to since the bed incident has something just as bad, if not worse, happen to their babies, through no fault of their own.
Almost all of them replied with something like "falling off the bed is nothing. When my son was 1 he (fell, flew, jumped) off the (table, chair, moving vehicle) and landed on his (head, butt, dad's crotch)."But the real casualty from this has been now we are EXTREMELY overprotective of him, becoming the overbearingly safety-conscious parents we swore we'd never become. I want our kid to grow up adventurous and confident, not timid and frightened (like his dad). I know that he's going to get bumps and bruises and scrapes and such over the course of his life, but seeing him cry like that as something I never want to see again.I think what we need to do is have another baby.
Everyone says that you become less worried about those things with the 2nd one. Is that why people have more kids? Probably. At the very least, if Luke fell off the bed again, at least he'd land safely on another baby.
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I think I am missing a parent gene because even when my first fell off the bed a few times it didn’t upset me that much. Come to think of it I think this happened to our second less if at all because I had learned from the first not to leave her on the bed. But yeah, you just HAVE to be more relaxed about each once you’ve got 2 or more to look after. There just isn’t enough vigilance to go around.
- Carrie
My son rolled over for the first time while laying on my LAP having a bottle, he fell to the floor head first, bent over backwards than landed on his butt. My friend Fred was standing right in front of me, we both dashed for the baby and hit our head together so hard WE had tears. Than we sat on the couch taking turns cuddling the baby till my husband got home from work. Baby D. was FINE but Fred and I were never the same LOL! With my daughter M. She got up on her hands and knees and LAUNCHED herself off the side of the bed just as I grabbed at her! When I feel bad about the kids crashes and bumps I remember what my aunt did to my poor cousin… They had this big mirror above the couch so she set Em to look at herself and Em got so excited that the slipped down between the wall and the couch and got STUCK down their. My aunt FREAKED and kept trying to pull her UP before she thought to just move the stupid couch…
- Anonymous
My son fell of the bed while my husband was taking a nap with him. He was about 6 months old he rolled over and on the way to the floor managed to smack his forehead on the side table we had!!! When he landed he was quiet for about 2 second then came the wailing. I was so upset with my husband and he was upset with himself. But after all my son was fine except for the knot on his head and we were still shaky, we paid attention more and now my son is eight and has had alot of falls.So it’s to be expected.
- Anonymous
every parent should keep ARNICA in the medicine cabinet. It’s homeopathic, pick your brand. Hyland’s is a great one and kids love it. Immediately after any bump or fall or for any and all booboos, major or not, give arnica. The tears stop, the pain goes away and the bruise is at least lessened if it even shows up at all. It’s amazing, you can actually see it work! Everyone I’ve shared this with has been amazed. I can’t believe they don’t use it in ERs, it’s that effective! I’m not an employee of Hyland’s or anything, just a mom of 2 crazy boys who are always hurting themselves & each other. :-)
- mom of 3
when my son luke was about a year old he was in the kitchen chair and decided to stand up. i was all the way across the room and when i realized what he was doing, it was too late. he rocked himself forward and flipped the chair over, landing on the concrete floor and banging his head on the wooden backrest of the chair. for his efforts, he immediately earned a bump the size of a chicken’s egg. we rushed him to the ER where he had an xray and i was repeatedly questioned by doctors, nurses, and a worker from the Family and Children’s Services. after an hour of questioning i was allowed to take him home with no complications. while i could have been outraged that i was questioned so many times i am thankful that people are looking out for children. you never know when it could be the result of neglect or abuse.
- toni
My oldest daughter had no catch reflex, so when she fell her arms would not come up, and she would hit her face on the floor, wall, whatever, every time. We got so used to it we would just ask her “did you hurt the floor?” and she would toddle off to get the boo boo bear out of the ‘fridge. Then once she fell and sank her front teeth into the sheetrocked wall. She did hurt the wall, and she also knocked her teeth loose, and bled all over the place! She’s 20 and at least has learned to try to roll and land on her shoulder when she falls, because she still doesn’t have a catch reflex!
- hjnytoni
Bwahaha!! Great one, Paul. My oldest was little Miss Cautious - sat at the bottom of the stairs and figured them all out before tentatively attempting to crawl verrry carrrefully up the bottom two. So you could say I was lulled into a false sense of security. Or at least that’s the story I’m sticking to. Along comes second, who was, instead, little Miss Experiment-with-Gravity. If it was taller than her (and everything was), it was there to be scaled. The shelves, the chairs, the stairs, the coffee table - her job was to get to the top and stand on it. She managed, most of the time, not to fall. She tumbled halfway down the stairs once, and hardly cried. THEN, when I least expected it (as she was sound asleep, scrunched over by the wall in her sister’s twin bed where we’d both fallen asleep), gravity won. I got up to attend to crying sister who was in my bed with daddy, and by the time I reached the room next door, I heard the thump. The telltale silence, followed by shrieking. I scooped her up and immediately realized that she had an extra elbow below her left elbow. Or at least a bend that looked scarily like an elbow. I leaped into super-mom mode and alerted father that I was taking baby to the ER. Carried baby to carseat, soothing and hugging and being ever-so-careful. Drove speedily, yet safely, to children’s hospital five minutes away. Gently carried sobbing baby into ER, to be met by three kind and competent nurses. The moment I saw their calm countenances, I completely lost it. Burst into tears and, holding sad baby out to them, sobbed, “I broke my baby!” Except for the seven sticks it took to get an IV in to sedate her and reduce the fracture, they took very good care of her. The best part was watching my 18-lb. 18-month-old list rather severely to the left as she toddled around with a cast on her arm. She adapted, though, so well that when they took it off four weeks later, she listed to the right. She’s almost 11 now and is still my daredevil, but so far, that arm holds the only broken bone. ::::::knocking loudly on wood as I type this::::::::::
- mindyc
By the time you get to the third one you are like “Whaaa? Who fell off the bed? Oh, look their fine. Pick up that lunch meat off the floor! I told you not to wear my makeup! Honey, pull Timmy out of the trash can….”
- wallaby
i’m still so upset with myself as my 7- month-old son fell off the bed this morning.it was so fast, i put him on the bed then in a few second, he fell off his head on the hard tiles and he was crying so badly..and me too.i still do not know how well he is as dr asked me to monitor him for at least 24 hours..
- mommy
ya’ll are cracking me up. I am glad I’m not the only one that freaks out, Paul & others. Your comment about landing on another baby is hysterical. Good point, maybe that’s why parents with more children are so calm. When my daughter threw herself off the couch I was so close, I was touching her, but it happened so fast. She busted her lip and bled profusely. I almost passed out and went screaming for my husband to ‘fix it.’ Everything was fine and there was a small cut in her mouth. I know I have to stay calm at these moments and we are very fortunate to not have gone to the ER yet (knocking on wood also…) with either one. I’m saving up some anti-anxiety medicine for when that moment happens.
- rugbymom
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