Yeah, my son is a pretty active sleeper too. I found using a body pillow with him helped a lot (it’s basically a pillow the size of your body; his mom had one to help her be comfortable during pregnancy). Sometimes one of us would just have to keep monitoring him. Propping him back up would never really wake him, and helped him with congestion immensely.
-xtien
My daughter had croup a few months ago. Woke up wheezing and struggling to breath. Didn’t know what it was, gave her water and medicine to calm her down. Gave that 5 minutes then rushed to the ER. I don’t mess around with breathing problems.
They gave her steroids and it was gone in an hour but don’t let it get to that point. It’s terrifying. Steam helps though.
I did the steam things (and still do) with my kids and myself. Blocked nasal passages and airway infections are a fact of life here in .nl.
I think I went to the doctor once with the boy when he was a baby because him struggling to breathe as was terrifying to us. Now with the girl, we had seen it all, so I just took long hot showers with her on my arm and it all turned out right.
Added benefit: while getting him to submerge his head is a major hurdle (getting him past the first stage of swimming lessons is taking well over 6 months now!) she just doesn’t give a shit and controls her breathing and eyes like the aquatic mammal she is.
also: fuck yea on the parenting thread!
Teachers strike today, so my boy is missing half a day of school. I intend to spoil the little fucker rotten on screen time. See if he can get enough of it.
I can imagine that was quite a scare. I have had similar situations where things go pear-shaped in an instance (for example the one time when my oldest daughter shot of the pedals of her bike while breaking at a traffic light and threatened to shoot straight into the traffic. I just managed to grab her at the last instance…
The anger you felt isn’t weird. It’s mostly shock and relief combined, in my experience, which outs itself as anger first (" I told you to wait!!!"). Don’t worry about it, as long as you calmed down afterwards. And don’t expect your daughter to have learned here lesson: it will take a long long time before they grasp the danger of traffic…
Long story short: My mom unexpectedly stopped by today, realized my sister was at home and talking to me on the phone so she promptly asked for a video call with my nephew. We’re using discord these days for my computer and their or his tablet
1.5 hours of grandma and 4 year old nephew talking about toys, movies, and his visit right in the middle of what I was doing. The cute thing was though I got to her him retell his version of Captain Marvel (we’ve all seen it even grandma), listen to my mom call Buzz Lightyear Gordon Lightfoot (who1?) and since they’re flying over here my nephew always ask, and probably will for a full 3 months, when he gets to come to my house. I’m still convinced the 4 year old thinks all his relatives in Oregon live in my house which is why when he talks to me he might ask for grandma or his cousin (my other nephew).
Anyways, 1.5 hours is little long for me to be listening about toys, cartoons and watching him bounce around showing superhero moves, but… he likes to see the cat and he’ll only sit there in camera view if I pet him for an hour, grandma is too nervous to do video chats on her own, and it’s Sunday so any chore can wait till later.
I wish they were closer, but I am thankful for long distance video calls even if they can of disrupt sometimes. Also my sister, the mommy, was right there with me.
This is so damn cute.
I’m glad your story at a good ending. The alternative would be absolutely horrible.
Tell me about it! When my son was little I pretty much wondered every time he ran a fever, “What if this time it’s something serious?”.
Holy cow! I just saw this a few minutes ago. I’m glad it all worked out, with nothing more than a scare. As for the anger stuff, I can see it. Nothing like a close call to get the lizard brain in gear.
Road-crossing and traffic have generated the two or three scariest moments of my life as a parent.
Yes. Then after they put the smell in the poop you would do anything to get that weird smell back. That is why people go nuts over newborns. It reminds you of the days when diaper changes were not so bad.
Glad nothing happened. You were probably angry at yourself as much as at anyone else.
Never trust a 4 year old to do anything but cause problems. They will drink ant poison, stroll into traffic, happily take the hand of a stranger, forget their are potty trained at the worst times, tell your large aunt that she looks pregnant, tell your boss “you are not the boss of me” in front of the entire office, etc.
I think parents are destined to have stuff like this happen to them at least 4-5 times before the kids have enough common sense not to dart into traffic. The one single thing that I yell at my kids about is darting into traffic and/or running in parking lots. While I won’t claim that’s a good approach, when they get out of the car now, they make eye contact with me before moving in any direction and, if needed, I tell them either to hold still or which way to go (they are 6 and 8, btw).
This morning, after dropping them off at school, I got in my car and was driving ~ 3MPH in the parking lot when a 4 yr old girl darted out from behind a car and I nearly hit her. Honestly, even though I was going that slowly, I would not have had time to stop. Luckily, she didn’t quite make it in front of the car. Her mom was irate and tore into her. Ironically, this is “parking lot safety” week at their school.
really fuck cars and school. I walk my boy to school, or on a bike when we’re lasy/in a hurry. All those lazy-ass moms in their big asocial SUV’s. Bah.
How hard can it be to park 200m away from the school and walk the last bit? And so much safer! but no, mom is in a hurry and does not want rain on her perfectly painted face.
I walk my 5-year old daughter to school. It’s about a 20 minute walk what with dawdling ans staring at things. The car traffic around the school is absolutely nuts. I’ve seen a woman drive her child to the school from our street. We walked past her as she was stuck waiting to get to the school. I was on my way home by the time she entered the school parking lot.
I drive my daughter to school even though it’s a 10-minute walk each way at a good pace. At least I’m doing this for the next three months. The reason is I have my younger daughter which has to go to daycare and doesn’t do the two-way walk very well and it puts me too far behind. In September they’re both at the same school and I will walk them over.
I remember with our first child when he ran a fever of 104. We were like, “Christ, his brain is going to vaporize! Call the doctor!” The sleepy doctor said not to worry until it hit 106 and then ice-bath him and see if it comes down.
Infants run high fevers, but it’s scary until you understand that. The fever usually comes down quickly with Tylenol. The trick with that is getting the kid to swallow the liquid. I remember having to pinch the nose shut to get the kid to open his mouth and then clamping the mouth shut until he swallowed.
I wish we could do that but their school is > 3 miles away and only accessible along a very busy 45mph 2 lane road that doesn’t have any sidewalks (welcome to Raleigh). We’re far more likely to die trying to walk or bike there than drive.
I guess looking back on it from a few days on now, I misnamed that feeling as “anger” when it was probably just a rush of adrenaline and energy that I had nowhere to direct, and it felt like anger. Not a feeling I’m really accustomed to, and not one I’d like to feel again anytime soon.
But you guys are right, you can talk to a four-year-old about safety until you’re blue in the face, even get a “yes, daddy” response. But then they’re just going to turn around and do what they’re going to do. Then when you ask them why, you just get an “I dunno.”
The hard thing here is that if there’s any blame to go around, it’s probably mine. I should have walked her across the street before I dealt with all the stuff I had to carry, just gone back for it. At least I didn’t have to learn that lesson too dearly.
True. They are and remain animals to a large extent. As are we. So its all good. Congrats on your luck man.
I am so happy i live in this suburban village. Its all so safe and roomy and friendly. No way would i be happy trying to raise children in a large city.