My messy house nearly killed my baby today.
I'm not being melodramatic. It is only by the grace of God that he is cuddling on my lap right now instead of lying dead in the coroner's office.
He is 9 months old and really starting to move and groove across the floor. He does a cute sort of pull and drag thing and uses his big toe to push off. He also puts absolutely everything he comes across in his mouth.
I'm a slob thanks to AD/HD, my husband is a slob thanks to who knows what, we have a crazy active 3 year old boy and 2 very hairy cats. Needless to say, the house is a dump. Not good when the baby is mouthing everything.
Usually, I see him pick stuff up and I grab it away or he makes some kakking noise and I get whatever it is out of his mouth. Today, well, today was a completely different story.
It was a normal morning, DH was getting ready for work, DS1 was watching a bit of tv downstairs, baby was cruising around on the living room floor and I was catching up on my emails. Baby started making his "something in my mouth" noise, so I scooped him up to see what it was. Nothing came out in my initial sweep and he seemed happy so I didn't worry. He was still sitting on my lap and he started to get a little more worried looking. He started coughing a bit. I did a good sweep of his mouth and nothing came out but he did start really choking and sputtering. I told DH not to leave for work. The sweep I did must have triggered something because he started coughing and throwing up mucus. I flipped him over on his belly to start banging on his back but then all of a sudden he was ok. We have all been sick with colds this last week so I assumed that it was the mucus bothering him and he just needed to get it up (older brother has asthma and a wicked gag reflex and will puke up mucus when sick).
He wanted to nurse so I put him to the breast and he bit me. I yelled and that made him cry. I felt that if he could cry, whatever blockage he had was gone. He nursed and fell asleep. For some reason (instinct?) I put him down to sleep in the Pack n' Play in the living room (not unusual but definately not our usual routine).
About half an hour later he woke up. Since I was only a few feet away I could see right away that he was awake and picked him up to cuddle on my lap. I don't know what it was about him but I could tell that he still wasn't right from the earlier incident (even though he was happy and smiling - maybe he wasn't happy and smiling enough?) I looked at him and there, poking out of the corner of his mouth, was a piece of plastic. I pulled it out and it was a 2" by 1/2" strip of plastic packaging that I knew right away came from the DVD that I had bought for the 3 year old yesterday.
I didn't think much of it at first other than "oh, good, that was what was bothering him". Then the reality hit. If he had inhaled that he would have been dead. There would be no clearing that blockage. Someone or something was protecting my baby, not only during the initial choking incident but also during the half an hour that he was SLEEPING!
I believe in God and I believe that I was given an incredible gift today. I was given a chance to make a huge change in my life and it's not a chance I will pass up. It will take a little while to get the house spic and span but I already have a big pile of stuff to get rid of in the front hallway and that was with 2 small children and uncontrolled ADHD.
Please, everyone with messy houses, let my lesson today be a lesson for you as well and just clean it up. All the "stuff" I have that seems so important right now would be meaningless if I was planning my baby's funeral this afternoon rather than noodling around at MDC and watching him play with his toys.
Martha
p.s. I realize that a piece of packaging like that could just have easily fallen on a spotless floor (I didn't purposely throw it on the ground) but the reality is that it was just one of many choking hazards on the floor in my house, he just happened to pick that one.
p.p.s. I won't be buying anymore lottery tickets either - I figure all my good fortune pretty much got used up today!
I'm not being melodramatic. It is only by the grace of God that he is cuddling on my lap right now instead of lying dead in the coroner's office.
He is 9 months old and really starting to move and groove across the floor. He does a cute sort of pull and drag thing and uses his big toe to push off. He also puts absolutely everything he comes across in his mouth.
I'm a slob thanks to AD/HD, my husband is a slob thanks to who knows what, we have a crazy active 3 year old boy and 2 very hairy cats. Needless to say, the house is a dump. Not good when the baby is mouthing everything.
Usually, I see him pick stuff up and I grab it away or he makes some kakking noise and I get whatever it is out of his mouth. Today, well, today was a completely different story.
It was a normal morning, DH was getting ready for work, DS1 was watching a bit of tv downstairs, baby was cruising around on the living room floor and I was catching up on my emails. Baby started making his "something in my mouth" noise, so I scooped him up to see what it was. Nothing came out in my initial sweep and he seemed happy so I didn't worry. He was still sitting on my lap and he started to get a little more worried looking. He started coughing a bit. I did a good sweep of his mouth and nothing came out but he did start really choking and sputtering. I told DH not to leave for work. The sweep I did must have triggered something because he started coughing and throwing up mucus. I flipped him over on his belly to start banging on his back but then all of a sudden he was ok. We have all been sick with colds this last week so I assumed that it was the mucus bothering him and he just needed to get it up (older brother has asthma and a wicked gag reflex and will puke up mucus when sick).
He wanted to nurse so I put him to the breast and he bit me. I yelled and that made him cry. I felt that if he could cry, whatever blockage he had was gone. He nursed and fell asleep. For some reason (instinct?) I put him down to sleep in the Pack n' Play in the living room (not unusual but definately not our usual routine).
About half an hour later he woke up. Since I was only a few feet away I could see right away that he was awake and picked him up to cuddle on my lap. I don't know what it was about him but I could tell that he still wasn't right from the earlier incident (even though he was happy and smiling - maybe he wasn't happy and smiling enough?) I looked at him and there, poking out of the corner of his mouth, was a piece of plastic. I pulled it out and it was a 2" by 1/2" strip of plastic packaging that I knew right away came from the DVD that I had bought for the 3 year old yesterday.
I didn't think much of it at first other than "oh, good, that was what was bothering him". Then the reality hit. If he had inhaled that he would have been dead. There would be no clearing that blockage. Someone or something was protecting my baby, not only during the initial choking incident but also during the half an hour that he was SLEEPING!
I believe in God and I believe that I was given an incredible gift today. I was given a chance to make a huge change in my life and it's not a chance I will pass up. It will take a little while to get the house spic and span but I already have a big pile of stuff to get rid of in the front hallway and that was with 2 small children and uncontrolled ADHD.
Please, everyone with messy houses, let my lesson today be a lesson for you as well and just clean it up. All the "stuff" I have that seems so important right now would be meaningless if I was planning my baby's funeral this afternoon rather than noodling around at MDC and watching him play with his toys.
Martha
p.s. I realize that a piece of packaging like that could just have easily fallen on a spotless floor (I didn't purposely throw it on the ground) but the reality is that it was just one of many choking hazards on the floor in my house, he just happened to pick that one.
p.p.s. I won't be buying anymore lottery tickets either - I figure all my good fortune pretty much got used up today!
How scary! 
Thank you for sharing this with us. I could use a kick in the rear. 
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