[KrystalC]

Yep.... it's time to share our OOPS! or DUH! moments with others so those of us who are not perfect know we're not alone.

For the first two weeks of Liam's life, I was scared to put him in bed with me because I was a very deep sleeper before I had him. I knew I wouldn't sleep as soundly on the couch, so I slept there with him on my chest. I actually managed to swaddle him and KEEP him swaddled one night when I went to sleep. Well, let's just say the swaddle made him a bit more cylindrical in shape and he fell off the couch when I shifted my position. He started crying and I felt HORRIBLE. He wasn't hurt at all and just picking him up and snuggling him for a few seconds calmed him down, so I'm sure there will be no lasting trauma for him, but I think about it every day. He could have landed on his head or something!! Anyway, that was the last night we ever slept on the couch... we've been in the bed every night since.

 

[my3peanuts]

I pulled up along side our mailbox to get the mail(we live on a county road but still pretty busy) and I ended up not being able to reach so I got out, got the mail and apparently while getting out I bumped the lock...

So here is my van running, on the road, with all the kids in it! I had to run down our long driveway, find a hanger, and unlock the door. It took a while and the kids were screaming but we all lived!

 

[NotTheOnlyOne]

my ds is only 7 months so I dont have many yet, but I did hit his head on the ceiling trying to get him out of a Snuggli when he was 3 months old. (I use a sling now!!) he was pretty tight in there so I was pulling him pretty hard, so when he became free, he just kept going up... out basement has a really low part where the vent runs and I was standing right under that. He had a bump on his head for a few days and we actually did take him to the ER, but didnt stay once we realized the wait time was 3+ hours. Boy can he scream! And of course I cried.....

Oh I do have another one from my daycare kids: I had to use the bathroom of morning, intestinal issues kept me in there a while. When I emerged, I found the 2 boy toddlers (18 months or so) we EATING the jar of vaseline I had left on the changing table. I had to call poison control center to make sure I didnt need to call an ambulance. But they told me it was fine. So, if you were wondering, Vaseline IS edible!

 

[Ophelia]

I just had one last night. Instead of a highchair, I have a booster seat attached to the kitchen chair. Had just got done feeding him a little banana, had him scooted up to the table and went into the kitchen to take my homeopathic drug concoction for colds. Then I hear a loud THUD and the kitchen chair was back down to the floor with him still strapped in! How stupid of me. I should have known that was going to happen because he had been starting to push himself away from the table.

I was horrified!

Right away I brought him to DH who freaked out from being woke up to a crying baby (not freaked out as in mad, but as in what the heck is going on)and I tried to comfort feed him (the kid, not the DH!), which I could tell wasn't working very well and he was hurting.
So we went to urgent care, everything checked out fine and he was acting fine before we even drove there. Not even a bump on the head I am surprised as he must have hit it hard.

 

[earthgirl]

Once after putting DD in the carseat I went to fasten the clip. It wouldn't work so I tried pushing the pieces together even harder. At that exact moment DD, who was asleep, let out a scream and I realzied I had caught a little piece of one of her chins in it. It didn't break the skin or anything, only left a small red mark. Still, I felt HORRIBLE! She went right back to sleep, though.

 

[Thalia the Muse]

I was squatting on a concrete porch holding DD when she was about seven months old, and I just lost my balance and fell over sidways -- I couldn't put my hand out to save myself. I did manage to kind of toss her out of the way onto the porch, but man did we both cry after that one.

I also cut several of her nails down below the quick when she was a bitty infant, so that blood droplets were smeared everywhere.

 

[KrystalC]

Oh, yeah... I did cut his thumbnail to the quick after his first bath at home when he was like 5 days old. I felt awful and couldn't bring myself to cut his fingernails for WEEKS.

 

[Starr]

When DD was about 6 months old I went to buckle the top strap of her carseat and pinched her neck skin. I felt terrible since we had only had her a month and called DH crying.

A few months ago I layed her down in her crib for bed and the phone rang so I kinda rushed. Next morning DH informed me I forgot to put the crib rail up. Luckily she never fell out but I still think of what could have happened.

This one isn't really MY fault but... I kept complaining to my mom about how quickly Olivia could get around and how she was always into stuff before I could find her. My mom kinda laid into me about how i'm the mom and need to watch her better. Well we happened to go to my parents house and after being there a while I said I was going to use the bathroom and to keep an eye on her. When I came out my mom wasn't watching and Olivia climbed to the top of their stairs. She was excited to be at the top but its a long way down if she would have fallen.

 

[phoebemommy]

Ooh! I have one. We were getting ready to go on a two week trip when ds was 3 months, and I was insane, with the packing and prepping and all. So insane that I thought, when I woke up and ds was still asleep in the bed, that it would be a good time to vacuum. So I vacuumed the baby room, and the hall, and I started going into the bedroom. Ds was sleeping through it, but I neglected to notice that the dog wasn't. The dog's bed is on the other side of the people bed so with the vacuum coming at him he thought he was trapped. He jumped up on the bed and in his urgency, stepped on ds' chest, and possibly grazed his face (there were little bumps that looked about the spacing of claws). The dog, I think, realized what he was doing right as he was doing it, and so stepped lightly, because besides the tiny bumps, there weren't any bruises or anything. Ds woke up and freaked out, though. The dog felt very bad (he looooves ds) and I let him lick the kid to apologize. I think ds had no idea what happened, just that something went down and it scared him, because he shows no sign of being afraid of the dog.

I felt like a real jerk, though.

 

[feministmom]

In addition to my really BIG oops I posted about (http://www.mothering.com/discussions...=1#post7563616) I also pinched DD's leg while clipping the straps to the swing. Poor thing had just fallen asleep and boy was she mad to be so rudely awakened! It took over an hour to get her back to sleep...

 

[gwynthfair]

OMG, I have drawn blood so many times when clipping DD's nails! It's like a lose-lose situation. Either I cut her figure when trimming her nails or she cuts her face if I don't! It's the most impossible task. She never really seems to notice though.

 

[Dov'sMom]

I came home from the hospital two days after having DS alone, as my DH was at work and MIL, who was supposed to come to help, was shopping with her friend (big miscommunication there). It was Friday afternoon, and lots of cooking and preparing to do for the sabbath (orthodox Jews can relate). So I put DS in the sling and started cooking. One traditional food Jews serve when a baby is born is chickpeas, so I put them on to boil -- and then caught myself lifting the very heavy pot full of boiling water directly over my baby's head on my way to drain them.

Nothing happened, but that was when I decided FORGET ABOUT THE COOKING and if we were serving tuna fish out of cans at the celebration, that would be okay too!

With my nephew: he loves hugging trees and poles (weird kid) (can you say junior tree-hugger?). When he was maybe 18 months old, we were walking somewhere at night, and I was trying to keep him happy in my arms so he wouldn't scream to walk himself -- and run into the street. So I saw a pole in the distance and yelled, "Okay, DN, we're going to go get that pole," and ran full-speed for it, stopping short as we reached it to let him hug. Well, I forgot about Newton's first law, and DN's body didn't stop moving until his head connected big-time with the pole. He was fine, but big

moment for me!

 

[Snowdrift]

I've almost dropped DD a few times when getting her in the wrap.

I did drop her off the couch once--we were sleeping overnight at a friend's house, she was sleeping on my chest. We finished the night on the floor.

Last week I forgot to do the second half of the buckle on her carseat

The worst one was when we she was two weeks old DH and I went to a restaurant for lunch between classes (we had to be out--I had to go to class, school was an hour away, couldn't leave new baby that long, DH cared for her while I was in classes and we nursed on class breaks). I laid her down on an empty chair next to me, keeping a hand on her belly to make sure she didn't fall off.

Somehow she wiggled out from under my hand and hit the floor. Hard. At two weks old.

 

[becoming]

I've fallen down at least twice while carrying each of my kids.

I've called Poison Control about five times in my mothering career.

I boiled all the water out of the pan while sterilizing DS's bottle nipples (he was formula-fed) and had to take a screaming, hungry baby into the next town to Wal-Mart to get new nipples before he could eat!

: There's a story that would convince just about anyone to breastfeed.

And this wasn't my mistake, but it's funny anyway -- the first time DS stayed with DH's parents for a couple of hours, he came home with his diaper on backward!

Oh, and just a few weeks ago, we were at Chuck E. Cheese, and I let DD (1) stand up in the booth beside me. She slid off the bench and down under the table, hitting the back of her head on the bench and then on the floor. I was sitting RIGHT THERE, just an inch from her, and I couldn't react fast enough to stop it!

 

[Thalia the Muse]

It's a wonder any infants at all survive to their first birthday, really.

 

[lanielayne]

When my nephew, Avery, was 6 weeks old my sis gave me a ride to a friend's house. As I closed the door when I got out of the car the door's window shattered and all the glass fell onto him and his carseat! Needless to say I was shocked and my sis was hysterical. He was fine in the end but she took him to the ER and he had a tiny cut. He is now 10 yrs old and she still will not let me live that down! I still feel guilty even though I know it wasn't my fault.

I am sure I have had at least 1 if not several accidents happen with each of my children as they have grown. Ds1 reminded me the other day that I slammed his fingers in the door a few years ago. I also burned my sweet baby girl's newborn feet twice on the stovetop the first time I slung her and tried to cook at the same time! She didn't have a mark as it wasn't a cook surface just the side of a stupid old oven but I won't sling her while I cook ever again. I am pretty sure I dropped dd1 when she was a baby but I truly don't remember the incident. Must have blocked that traumatic event from my brain.

 

[Harmony96]

Oh I'm SO glad to see this thread! I thought I was the only "woopsie" mama here. Here's mine:

I sometimes nurse at keyboard, and obviously our computer is on a desk. Well sometimes I bump DD's head on the underside of the desk. But then another time I was nadrt (nursing at dining room table lol), and our table has a little "skirt" around it as well as a tablecloth. The tablecloth nicely covers the skirt so that I can't see it. I forgot about the skirt and was adjusting her, and I squeezed her poor head between the skirt and my leg.

I was nursing her in the sling one time, and her head was on the ring side... and I kept adjusting it and adjusting it smaller and smaller. Then it was perfect, so I thought. She FELL OUT of the sling a minute or so later. I felt her start to fall though so she didn't even hit the floor, but still.

I'm sure there's others that I'm forgetting too.

to all the mamas who posted and will post on this thread.

 

[bc1995]

When dd was 1 month old, I fell with her. She was strapped in her carseat. I fell off of a curve and couldn't keep from falling. The carrier slipped off my arm and bounced and then flipped upside down. She wasn't hurt at all, just scared. I got her out right away and she cried for less than a minute. It was 20 minutes later before I relized I was limping and my elbow was bleeding. I just kept replaying it in my mind. I felt so bad about letting her fall like that!

 

[LiLStar]

this is a babysitting one..

I was walking my nieces plus a neighbor that i used to babysit to the neighbor's house. my toddler niece was in the stroller, its raining so i'm carrying an umbrella AND talking on my cell

(hey, it was either my SIL or my bro! i forget which. i was talking about when to pick them up) we were walking dowm a steep hill and i dropped the umbrella. reach down to pick it up, and the stroller slips from my hands! i dropped my cell and its sliding down the hill towards a drain that it could have fallen into. the stroller rolls down the hill a couple feet then tips over. rescue phone just before it falls in the sewer, rescue stroller, END PHONE CALL (heh) and luckily my niece was, understandably, upset, but not hurt.

 

[attachedmamaof3]

my ds is only 7 months so I dont have many yet, but I did hit his head on the ceiling trying to get him out of a Snuggli when he was 3 months old. (I use a sling now!!) he was pretty tight in there so I was pulling him pretty hard, so when he became free, he just kept going up... out basement has a really low part where the vent runs and I was standing right under that. He had a bump on his head for a few days QUOTE]

OMG!!! I did the SAME thing to DS#1 except I was trying to get him IN the Snuggli...I don't know why but I put the Snuggli on first and was trying to put him in and when I lifted him up I accidentally SLAMMED his head into the doorway (we lived in a renovated caboose at the time so really low doorways)...I felt like THE WORST MOM IN THE WORLD...especially since I CONVINCED myself I'd given him brain damage and possibly death since I was SURE I'd hit his soft spot.....*sigh* It was horrible.

Oh...he's ok...he lived...and no brain issues..