Let me start off by saying that I had NO intention of writing this blog. None whatsoever. In fact, we have only told our close family members and friends and that was about it. No big posts on Facebook or instagram, we kind of kept it to ourselves. Mainly for one very big reason. Mom Guilt.
Have you ever done something you felt SO bad for that you literally just didn’t want anyone to know? That was me. Well, I guess that still is me, but I am pushing through this giant “Mom Guilt” and sharing anyway.
I recently asked online what women like to read on other moms blogs. Most people said the same thing. Real stories from real moms. The messy and not so perfect. So here I am.
The Fourth of July. It was in the afternoon and I was relaxing on the couch. At this point Eloise wasn’t sleeping well AT ALL for over a month. Teething was having her up around every two hours and it was killing me! ( Like I seriously felt like I was dying.) So I was in total Zombie-Mode. Eloise was playing on the floor in front of me with all her toys. She does really good at playing by herself for awhile and she was enjoying all her toys. I had grabbed a couple individually wrapper York Peppermint patties and was snacking while lounging. Eloise saw the shiny wrappers up on the end table and started reaching for them. I quickly moved them out of her reach. What I DIDN’T notice was a smallish corner of one of the wrappers had floated to the ground where I couldn’t see. (Yes, you all can see where this is going…..)
Eloise started acting really strange. She kept making gagging faces but then would crawl around. Then gag again and be fine. I had a bad feeling something was in her mouth but she was refusing to open it. She seemed to be breathing fine, and then ok, and then fine so I was really confused. I decided to video her and send it to my nurse cousin to see what she said. (This was all within a matter of a minute or two)
As I was videoing on my phone I saw it. A shiny, sparkly wrapper on the top/back of her mouth. A general sweep didn’t bring it up so we instantly called 911. Totally afraid that at any second she would swallow it and completely cut off her air. The paramedics came and couldn’t see anything initially. They kept asking if maybe she vomited it up without us noticing. I assured them that it was still in there.
This whole time Eloise was keeping her mouth tightly closed and breathing through her nose. She was smart and noticed that every time she opened her mouth she would gag so she kept it shut.
The paramedics decided they didn’t have the equipment to get it out or if she would swallow it so off we went. ( I also realized that there was a children ER 3 minutes from my house. Who knew?)
We got into a room and the nurses and Dr. kept trying to see where this darn piece of wrapper was. They couldn’t find it, on top of Eloise refusing to open her mouth. (I swear no one believed me it was in there.) They all left the room to get an X-ray ordered when Eloise started gagging again and the nurse caught a glimpse of it.
She got the Dr and the other nurses back in and decided to try and finger swipe it out.
What was happening was that the piece was so thin, and since it was wet, it was sticking to the top of her mouth and when she would breath in it would go back and hit her gag reflex and then she would cough it forward. It just kept going back and forth.
The Dr. eventually used a piece of gauge to grip in and pull it out. With a few people holding eloise in place.
We got it out and everything went just fine. Eloise didn’t even vomit! We did a quick X-ray to make sure she didn’t swallow any pieces. ( Side note, a york peppermint patty wrapper will NOT show up on an X-ray anyway…)
Everyone kept saying, “Mom is probably more traumatized than baby.” and boy were they right. Mainly because I was 100% responsible for what happened. I was eating the candy and I was watching Eloise.
Everyone I spoke with kept telling me ” It happens, kids stick things in their mouth all the time..” but it doesn’t help. It doesn’t change the fact that I had the wrapper and I was supposed to make sure she wasn’t sticking things in her mouth.
Of course I know realistically things happen, and that Eloise is quick and all over the place, but it doesn’t change how I feel about myself in that situation. If it was Matthew that was eating the candy I would say the same things to him that people say to me. If it happened to one of my mom friends I would say ” oh sweetie, it was an accident.” But it was me.
I have always said I have the BEST, bad luck. When these bad things happen to me I always have the best outcomes. In all the scenarios that could have happened after she stuck the wrapper in her mouth, Eloise keeping the wrapper on the roof of her mouth and not swallowing it or choking on it could not have been better. No medical procedure was necessary to remove it and she walked away 100% unharmed.
Mom on the other hand learned a few lessons.
- No eating anything with wrappers within Eloise’s play area.
- Throw wrappers away immediately from opening them
- Pay even more attention to what this girl is doing
I feel like this stage in our lives is simply just trying to keep these babies alive and to stop them from harming themselves. It’s non-stop. Especially with one like Eloise who is so independent and on-the-go at all times.
I have shared this with a few moms and every time I fear they are all thinking “Well why weren’t you watching her more…” or “How could that happen if you were right there?” and that may be the Mom Guilt in me or maybe they really are. If anything, sharing this might help another new mom realize how easy, and FAST a baby can put something in their mouth. And they put EVERYTHING in their mouths!!
So try not to judge me too hard on this one friends. I try to learn from all my mistakes and I especially tried to learn from this one.
With love
Ashley
