My stupid moment resulted in a skull fracture

[mrsdocmartin]

I can't tell you how awful I feel. I put Eliza in her papasan bouncy seat on the counter (STUPID) to give DS his dinner on Monday night. I turned around for one second and the whole thing flipped onto the linoleum floor. We took her in right away and they did a CT. She has a nondisplaced skull fracture. We had to stay one night for observation, but are home now. She seems fine, but I'm not. I feel like such a negligent mom.

[ellairiesmom]

Awwww-Mama...Please don't feel bad. These things happen all the time! I had to post because my Mom did that to my youngest brother when he was a baby...she had been putting him up there awhile & hadn't realized he had started to be able to bounce in the seat enough to move it slightly. He bounced right off the counter onto ceramic tile & fractured his skull.

He is 27 now, is very intelligent & well adjusted. He jokes that he forgives her for that one, but isn't quite over the time she left him on the dock & drove off in a boat not realizing he was missing until 20 mins later... (he is the youngest of 4 & well...it happens)

[P.J.]

I don't have much to say but
I think all parents have those moments where we do something less than 100% safe, and it really is a matter of luck if it will result in an accident or not. Don't be so hard on yourself.

[FloridaBorn]

Oh shit. I do this all the time when I'm in the kitchen working. Baby seat on the countertop. Man... so sorry this happened to you mrsdoc!

[tanyam926]

Don't be so hard on yourself. Stuff happens, and now you can educate your friends and family about the possible dangers.

I mean, in these types of instances it seems just fine, and perfectly safe when you have done it a million times, until it isn't. Then you feel horrible and beat yourself up about being a bad parent.

We all make mistakes. I can't even tell you how many times my 3 kids have fallen off the bed, or I've bumped their heads while carrying them, etc., etc. A friend of mine was carrying her 18 mo old dd when she tripped over her son and landed on the baby, breaking her leg. She felt like the worst mom ever too, in fact, I think every mom has felt like the worst mom in history at least once.

Wishing your lo a speedy recovery!

[pumpkinhead]

We all do stupid things even though we know better. You have to forgive yourself. Chances are your baby already has. You're not a bad mother. You made a mistake.

[MammaG]

Just to reassure you, my little one wriggled out of my mother's arms this past May when he was 5 months old. He fell head-first onto the ONLY patch of stone flooring in the house and also fractured his skull. He was totally fine. A little swelling for two days, but I put arnica on it and it never even bruised. I had a follow-up ultrasound done a few weeks later because he had some little bumps, but it turned out he had swollen glands (unrelated...he had a slight fever that night).

I did give him acetamenophen for a few days even though he wasn't fussy....I think it just made ME feel better to think I was doing something.

I also called the MA brain-injury association just to get more info. They told me that this is very common, and that the two causes they most often see for babies with skull-fractures are falling from someone's arms or falling in the bucket-seat off the supermarket cart. DON'T EVER put your baby in the bucket up on top of the supermarket cart's handles, folks! I got that message loud and clear from everyone I dealt with.

It's OK, mamma. Everyone has an 'oops' moment from time to time, and a mother always has to juggle to balance convenience with safety...sometimes your number comes up (I suspect mine will come up regarding the cat...I know Baby shouldn't be allowed to pull kitty's hair, but kitty doesn't seem to mind and it keeps Baby occupied long enough for me to go to the bathroom, you know?)

[katroshka]

Yes, these things happen... Here's my two worst mom moments:

One day I was doing dishes and set my conveniently non-crawling 7 month old dd on the kitchen floor like I always did. I'm checking her every 3- 5 minutes or so, I know there's nothing she can choke on so feel totally secure. Suddenly I hear thump-thump-thump-thump waaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh! She had started crawling, like instantly she hadn't ever crawled before, straight over to the top of the basement steps and down she went. Luckily there was a landing after the fourth step where she stopped, so she didn't go all the way down to the concrete floor. She was fine, but I felt AWFUL. So glad I have no steps in this house with #3 on the way (that's why I'm back here after about a million years).

A couple of years later I was getting my kids ready to go to the park. I put my older daughter in the back seat of the double stroller, then thought I should go grab a couple of sweaters for them. So I run to the bedroom, grab the sweaters, hear a big crash and this inhuman screeching. I come out and the stroller is tilted up on it's back end, and my 15 month old is sitting on the floor next to it, screaming. I nurse her and she chills out, and we go to the park. She was at that point starting to walk but preferred to crawl, so as she crawled around she was fine, but every time she stood up she would scream and sit back down. After seeing her do this 4-5 times I took her to the hospital, turns out she had hairline fractures in both bones in her right leg. She needed to wear a full leg cast for three weeks, during which time she totally stopped walking and didn't start again for several months.

So yes, these things happen to all of us, don't beat yourself up too much! Just learn from your mistakes and move on!

[nola79]

Originally Posted by FloridaBorn

Oh shit. I do this all the time when I'm in the kitchen working. Baby seat on the countertop. Man... so sorry this happened to you mrsdoc!

I did this all the time, too. (dd is too big now) So sorry this happened to you.

[mrsdocmartin]

Thanks mamas!

[nextcommercial]

OMGosh.. I do that ALL. THE. TIME. I've been doing that for years.

I'm glad she's OK, and I can't imagine the feeling of knowing she fell so far. But, if it helps at all, I will probably stop doing this, so maybe your PSA helps someone else.

[VroomieMama]

Yikes! I'm so glad that your babe is ok!

[philomom]

This happened to a friend of mine. The baby was okay... mom, she had to take Valium.

[DivineMrsM]

aww!! I'm sorry that happened to you guys!!

When we were on vacation, my husband had my 3yo son on his shoulders. DH stood up and DS started to lunge forward. DH over corrected and DS fell on his head on the tile floor. From WAYYYY up on Daddy's shoulders. SUPER scary. but he was totally fine.

I think everyone has these moments. At least, that's what I tell myself when they happen!

[Dov'sMom]

My baby started crawling just a few weeks ago. I was trying to nurse him to sleep, but he'd recently decided that life is too interesting ot fall asleep until he's totally worn out, so I got up and started putting my shirt back on before I brought him downstairs. I was standing right in front of the bed and whoosh-thump down he went on his head right next to my foot. I guess he was crawling across the bed and went too far? He'd fallen off the bed at least once before, but this time it happened right next to me and I felt so horrible and powerless.

Originally Posted by tanyam926

A friend of mine was carrying her 18 mo old dd when she tripped over her son and landed on the baby, breaking her leg. She felt like the worst mom ever too, in fact, I think every mom has felt like the worst mom in history at least once.

Wishing your lo a speedy recovery!

THIS is my worst nightmare. I am very, very heavy, and I am so terrified of falling on my baby. When my oldest was 4 months old, I slipped on a patch of wet grass and started to fall forward. I couldn't break my fall because I was holding him, and I was terrified of falling on him. I somehow twisted my body around so I fell backwards, earning me a compound ankle fracture, two weeks of torture before I was ready for surgery, two months of disability where I couldn't walk, and so many rods and pins that I now serve as a personal barometer for my co-workers (they know the weather's changing as soon as I start hobbling), but the baby? Didn't even cry.

[Peony]

It happens. So one of my worst foot in mouth stories is when I was chatting with a mom once who very sweetly had brought us food over after one of kids was released from a hospital stay. I don't remember exactly we were saying, but I finished up the conversation with "well, it isn't like I was dumb enough to put the bouncy up on the counter so the baby would fall out of it." Turns out that her baby had done exactly that the month before. Baby wasn't even sitting up yet but suddenly leaned all the way over and the the bouncy just fell to the floor. And I blame that verbal diarrhea on not sleeping in days. I guess it was so ingrained in my mind not to put baby on counter because I fell off a counter in a bouncy like thing when I was a baby and smashed my forehead open, I still have scars to this day, my mom always told me that story when I asked about them.

DD2 has fallen off the counter at age two and broke her clavicle. I insisted that she was fine, we put her to bed, and it wasn't until the middle of the night that I realized it indeed was broke. That same child climbed up on the mantle last winter and fell against our glass plated fireplace, butt first. She now has scarred butt cheeks. We all do things as parents that later we wonder what the heck we were thinking.

[Adaline'sMama]

Two weeks ago, I made a mistake not strapping my babe into her carseat and putting her ontop of a shopping cart. It resulted in a skull fracture and a very small brain bleed. 3 CT's later, everything was fine. I am so so sorry this happened to you. I know exactly how you feel.

Hugs to you. Accidents happen, its not your fault.

[1stTimeMama4-4-10]

I was wearing my four week old baby in a sling while eating rice. ONE grain of rice fell into the sling, landed on her leg, and by the time I got her out and figured out what had happened (she was sleeping peacefully and woke up screaming in a way I had never heard), she had a second-degree burn. I permanently scarred my four week old baby, and I felt like the shittiest mom of all time for a while.

[~Charlie's~Angel~]

When Charlie was, oh, 2 or 3 months old, I was out with my parents at a hockey rink. We were in the warm snack bar (winter in upstate NY) and I had taken him out of his bucket seat. He fell asleep before it was time to leave, so I set him back in the bucket on and wrapped him up all nice and snug with his baby snow suit on and warm blankets. We left about 45 minutes later, loaded him up in the car, and drove home, bout 20 minute drive.

When we got back to my parents house and I went to unbuckle him, I realized, to my extreme HORROR, that I had never buckled him into the seat!!!!!!!! He had slept the whole time, and the only thing keeping him from sliding or bouncing right out of the seat was the blankets weighing him down. Can you IMAGINE if we hit a big bump or had even a minor car accident????

My point being, we all have bone headed moments. WE try to learn from them, and hope they dont cause any permenant damage. Its traumatizing for sure.

mama Many Many

[mrsdocmartin]

Originally Posted by Adaline'sMama

Two weeks ago, I made a mistake not strapping my babe into her carseat and putting her ontop of a shopping cart. It resulted in a skull fracture and a very small brain bleed. 3 CT's later, everything was fine. I am so so sorry this happened to you. I know exactly how you feel.

Hugs to you. Accidents happen, its not your fault.

Oh my gosh, I just read your story. I am so glad your little one is ok too.