As I may have mentioned before, we usually put Ben to sleep in his crib at night, and get him in the early morning when he wakes and transferring him to our bed to sleep again. Usually he wakes at around 4 or 5 am, I go over to his room, pick him up, then bring him over to our room to sleep until he really wakes up, around 7 or 8. Usually Dave leaves at around 6, so he builds a little pillow wall on the other side of the bed so Ben won’t roll over and fall off the bed.
Sometimes Ben wakes up before me in the morning, and he’ll play around with my face or cry, so I know he’s awake. Lately, he’s become connected to his Elmo doll, so when he wakes up he usually plays with him, tossing him around, biting his eyeballs, playing with his hands.
The other day, I woke up to a loud *BANG*. I knew immediately that Ben had fallen off the bed. I got up and ran to the other side of the bed and saw what looked like a mini-murder scene (without the death, blood, and gore). Ben was face first on the floor, with Elmo’s body splayed out next to him. Pillows (which had previously been the pillow wall) were on the floor next to them. As I was coming around the bed, Ben had started screaming, not his normal cry of “Notice me!” or “Feed me!” I scooped him up in my arms and hugged him and checked to see what the damage was.
His forehead was a bit red, and he had a little cut under his nose, which was also red. He cried and I hugged him, apologizing for not waking up and watching over him. We sat for a while and I hugged him and rocked him, and after about four or five minutes, he was ok. Fifteen minutes later, he was crawling around and laughing like nothing happened.
I was able to piece together what could have happened. He probably woke up before me, saw Elmo and was quietly playing with him. Then he probably flung Elmo off the bed. He looked for Elmo, and seeing that there was a pillow wall created, pushed the pillows onto the floor so he could get a better look off the side of the bed. Seeing Elmo on the floor, Ben then launched his little body off the bed to go get his little buddy. Then one of two things happened. Either he fell off the bed, landed on the pillows he had dropped, then rolled over and hit his head on the floor OR he launched himself far enough to bypass the pillows and land directly on the floor. By the sound that I heard and the way he and Elmo were on the floor, it was the latter.
It seemed like everything was OK with him, there wasn’t too much swelling on his forehead and when I touched his nose he didn’t cry or wince from pain. I called the doctor to let them know what happened, and they told me to make sure that he wasn’t lethargic or that he hadn’t lost his appetite. He was actually the opposite, cruising around and laughing all morning and eating a hearty breakfast.
I felt a bit like a bad mother, but I remember friends and relatives telling me of times they had dropped their kids or when their kids had fallen off beds. It seems like its just one of those things that happens. I told my coworker about it and he had told me that once his kid accidentally fell out of the car and landed on the curb, and everything was OK. Knowing this made me feel a lot better, as well as seeing that Ben was doing ok.
So we’ve put a nice plush rug right next to the bed in case Ben plans on doing another flying leap to save his friend.
Man, he’s not even walking yet and he’s already getting into trouble!
Tags: Ben by Yano
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