Things That Go Bump In The Night

Otherwise entitled:
Why Your Mothering Instincts May Kill You
By: Me

If you have kids (or know kids), you know they get hurt. And if you have my son, you know he can get hurt-quite a bit. He's a busy boy, and doesn't look where he's going half the time. So if you're his mother, you are attuned to listen to those cries that are hurt cries and to come running when you hear them.

That means at any time of day-or in the middle of the night.

Last night I went to bed like any other night. An hour later, I was awoken by a terrified cry from my son. That's just as scary as a hurt cry, maybe even scarier, and makes the mommy auto-pilot kick in lightening fast. This is not a time when you think rationally. In fact, I don't even know what I was doing. I just know I heard that cry and a thousand thoughts raced through my head:

"He fell out of bed"
"The house is on fire"
"There's someone in his room"

And I RAN. Ok, well, first I must have gotten out of bed somehow (I don't remember doing it), and then I ran to the door. Well, actually I fell at the door. I don't remember doing that either. What I do remember is a very loud crash, then laying on the floor and reaching for the doorknob to open the door and thinking, vaguely "Ow". And hearing my husband behind me, saying "Ouch. That hurt. Are you ok?".

I don't know if I answered him. I must have been half asleep. I remember being desperate to get the door open. I did, and I must have run down the hall to my son's room, but I don't remember that either.

The next thing I DO remember is getting into his room and running across it to him, in his bed. And I remember thinking he hadn't fallen out of bed at all, and he wasn't hurt. But then I heard a beeping sound, so immediately I thought the house was on fire. And I was totally confused, because the alarm didn't seem to be coming from the smoke detector.

Luckily my husband had gotten there, and was thinking more clearly than I was (which wasn't at all, really). He found where the noise was coming from and saw that my son had squirreled away an alarm clock in a basket of toys (he's a big time squirrel-er) and it had gone off. My son was scared because of the sudden noise.

It took me a few minutes to grasp that my son wasn't in any danger--that a clock had just gone off. I really do think I was half asleep all that time. But as the reality that everything was ok set in, and the adrenaline wore off, two things became obvious to me. One, that I was shaking uncontrollably, and two, that I was HURT.

Remember how I said I fell? Well, I didn't fall, I FELL. And I must have hit things on the way down. As I sat there, making sure that my son was ok and was going back to sleep, I realized that I had a sharp pain in my calf, my knee, one hip, one foot, some ribs, and a couple of fingers. I don't even remember falling. All I remember is reaching for the damn doorknob from the floor.

As my husband and I headed back to our room, I looked at the spot by the door. A few things that were on a hope chest in the room were on the floor. I must have fallen on them. I don't even remember. I was in a lot of pain, but too tired to do anything about it. I went back to sleep.

Fast forward to this morning: I woke up with a huge bruise on the outside of my right calf, the inside of my left knee, a cut on my left hand, a bruise and scrape on my right rib area, a mother of a bruise on my right hip, and a broken toe. Yeah, no kidding. What the hell did I do?? Near as I can figure, I got out of bed, ran full tilt into the hope chest's corner (thereby bruising my hip--you ever do that? If you have, you know the spot I'm talking about, right on the bone), and knocked whatever was on there, off, and then fell over it. Landing would account for the bruises, but the broken toe? Maybe I ran it into the bottom of the hope chest. This is all I can figure.

But my little boy is safe and unhurt, and thankfully the house is not burned down. I, however, have seen better days. I am some lovely colors today, and I can't walk on my right foot. Ah, the joys of motherhood!!