Saturday, March 21, 2009

Trauma for the new Momma

Grant mentioned one of Kendra's tricks at the end of his last post. It's actually something I have chronicled in a post that I never finished and posted here, so I'll take a moment to tell the story now.

One of Grant's first days back at work several very traumatic things happened.

Kendra got really upset about something as I was changing her diaper. So I hurried and took her over to her crib to get her swaddled and calmed down. That's when I noticed something that broke my heart--there were actual tears forming in her eyes and swelling up and streaming down the sides of her faces.

Soooo sad to Mommy. Move faster!

Then, her crying took on a whole new wail that I'd never heard before. It sounded less like a baby and more like an animal. A tortured, dying animal.

Terrifying to Mommy. Why won't this blanket stay in place?!

And then, the worst of all. Just when her wailing went to that tortured, dying animal pitch she spit up. A lot. But that's not the terrible part. It was all shooting out of her nose.

Forget the stupid blanket!!

I picked her up and held her close, shushing like crazy and comforting her the best I can. I believe I actual said out loud to her in my fright, "Oh honey! Just barf all over me, I don't even care!! Just let Mommy make you feel better!"

Eventually I did get her clean, calm and sleeping. But I was so traumatized I immediately sent Daddy an email at work telling him about our rough, rough morning, ate a bite of chocolate and went back to bed with her (well, beside her, more like--I never put her in bed with me but I keep the bassinet by my side of the bed).

I took a moment and researched it on the internet before calling the doctor in a panic. Turns out, babies spitting up through the nose isn't that uncommon.

That kept me from worrying too terribly much, but it was still very disconcerting at the time.

No one told me about this!

4 comments:

Danielle said...

Poor baby! (and mommy!) I wonder if her belly hurt. My friend's baby was quite the nose-spitter-upper. He grew out of it eventually.

I usually keep Gripe Water on hand when I have a newborn for those few times the baby cries/screams for no apparent reason-- it calms their stomach, if that happens to be the reason they are crying. You can find it at health food stores.

Seth said...

After he was a few weeks old Simeon developed what we still call his "cat cry" which he only used a few times for a few months. It sounded like a cat getting run over by something. IT was horrible and scared us so much.

He did it when he was really upset, but it was VERY worrisome to us and got our hearts pounding.

So you guys are not alone. He grew out of it.

Kristina said...

Oh I'm so glad you didn't post pictures! ;) The "cat cry" really did freak us out, coming from our sweet mild mannered little boy. And it really is the saddest thing when they throw up. Simeon has only had one trow up sickness and it broke my little heart! He was so weak and sleepy that he would throw up into a rag we held in front of him and then just put his face in it and fall asleep! It seems like this was just a spit up though, maybe she had some air or something. Hopefully she hasn't been sick or anything. We love seeing pictures of her though. She is soooo cute!

Laura said...

I hate those first "Why didn't anyone WARN me!!" moments. Every child has their own couple of those. I'm glad mother and baby were able to peacefully sleep afterwards.