Fell down the stairs

I was walking down the stairs this morning with my 8 month old. My foot must have slipped on the edge of the stairs because the next thing I knew, I was hitting my bottom hard on a stair and sliding the rest of the way down. It has been a few hours and I am still upset (not to mentioned sore and bruised).

As soon as I hit, I pulled my son all the way in front of me and held him tight to my chest. He is perfectly ok. I scared the crap out of him though, and he cried for about a minute.

It is kind of crazy how a moms instincts kick in so quickly. I joked with my mom earlier about what the whole scene would look like if it had been replayed in slow motion. I think me falling would slow down, but the rate of speed in which I moved to protect the baby would still be in super fast speed. Once I reached the bottom of the stairs, I jumped right up to console him and make sure he was ok. If I had fallen without him, I would have probably laid there for a few minutes, in pain. I could care less about the burning sensation all up and down my back or the pain in my rear end...I was so worried that he was hurt in some way. Once I realized he was safe, I wanted to calm him down and let him know that everything was ok. I am always so careful on the stairs and yet it still happened. I have been fearful of falling down the stairs with him since before he was even born.

A little over a year ago, just a few days before Christmas, I was shopping at the mall. I was in the long line at the department store, waiting to buy the one item I needed from there. All of a sudden, I heard a woman screaming "Oh my God! My baby!". She screamed it over and over again, in unison with a high pitched cry from the baby. The woman was on the escalator and fell, dropping the baby, who continued to fall to the bottom. People rushed over. I didn't see the scene and stayed out of the way since I didn't have any help to offer. I have a vivid picture in my mind even though I didn't actually see the woman and her child fall. The paramedics arrived very quickly, although to that mother it probably felt like a lifetime. When I got to my car, I cried and I prayed. The whole situation upset me and I wasn't a parent yet. I called a friend of mine, who worked as an EMT; I was trying to find any reassurance that the baby could be ok. I actually googled the next few days to see if any news articles popped up about it. Nothing showed up, which I have always assumed must have been a good sign.

I think that memory is probably why I have been so upset all day long. Our main purpose as parents is to protect and care for our children. When something happens where your child could have been hurt, it scares the living crap out of you. My son is my entire world. I would have been devastated if he even had a bruise on him from that fall.


And now on a lighter note....