3:33 p.m. - 2007-09-16
a writing challenge
Sunday, September 16, 2007
This is the KWEEN 0F QUEEN'S WRITING CHALLENGE on Xanga.com.
Welcome to the 17th writing challenge of 2007!
"I had an idea that you might be able to use as a writing challenge: everyone's Dave Barry-esque "I swear I am not making this up" story. The story that we tell of some strange experience we had that needs absolutely no embellishment because it's insane enough all on its own.
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So, I don't think I have told this story before. If I have, too bad, you can read it again!
I was home with my newborn son. He was our first child. My husband worked nights. I was exhausted and the baby had colic! The doctor had given me a prescription for my baby son. He got 2 drops by an eye dropper before he had his bottle. I was supposed to wait 10 minutes after he got the medication before giving him the bottle so the prescription had time to settle his stomach and he didn't have colic. Right, tell a newborn baby that is hungry that they have to wait 10 more minutes before they are fed! Whatever!
So, I got out of bed about 3 in the morning when the baby started crying, staggered into his bedroom, changed his diaper and got the eye dropper filled. I put the dropper into his mouth and he inhaled at the same time. He choked! I panicked! I turned him upside down and patted his back. He didn't respond!
I grabbed my worn copy of Dr. Spock's all-purpose-all-knowing-hopefully all answer paperback book. I held my son, stomach side down with his head a little bit lower. In-between patting his back; I flipped through the index. I couldn't get him to respond at all!. He was NEVER QUIET! He should be hungry! Actually he should be starving since it had been 4 hours since his last feeding. I found a section of the book about choking. I took him into the bathroom, held him by his little legs and smacked his back twice!
NOTHING HAPPENED! He was limp, and did not respond to flicking the bottom of his foot with my fingernail! I cried, I begged him to wake up. I gently shook him a little bit. NOTHING HAPPENED!
I was convinced I had killed my newborn child!. I was a terrible mother. I was being punished because I had wanted a baby girl. I didn't know anything about boys so I was sure that this was my punishment.
I had no choice. I called the ambulance. (911 was not used at that time....Yes,...it was THAT long ago!)
The Fire Dept. ambulance came quickly. The two huge firemen came rushing into my house. They checked the baby over, looked at the prescription bottle, checked him again and then, they said...
"All of our equipment is too large for an infant this size and weight. We "think" he is ok but we want to take him to the emergency room for a doctor to make sure."
My husband was actually on his night off and had been sleeping throughout this whole drama. I guess I didn't wake him up because I didn't want him to know I had killed our child!
I woke my husband up, gave him a quick rundown on what had happened. He had to drive us to the hospital. We followed the ambulance carrying the two fireman and our newborn son. We arrived at the Emergency Room and waited outside for the doctor to call us. When they brought us into the small room with our little 6 lb. baby boy lying naked on a huge stretcher, I thought I was going to faint. Then the doctor asked me to explain what had happened. I went through the process, crying and shaking, I was waiting for his final prognosis.
He said "When you patted the baby's back, apparently you knocked the air out of him. Then the medication took over. He fell asleep! He is sleeping so well because there is no colic in him now. He has no fluid in his lungs. HE IS JUST FINE! You did not hurt him. He is just asleep. He will probably be very hungry when he wakes up again.
"Now, do YOU need something to calm you down so you can sleep? "
"OH NO!". I said. "I have to be awake to feed him when he wakes up again!"
And he did not wake up until about 8:00 A.M. that morning and I was up all night waiting for him to wake up!
THAT NEWBORN BABY BOY JUST CELEBRATED HIS 39TH BIRTHDAY LAST WEEK! He finally got over the colic after a few more months and became a very easy baby to take care of.
