Above pictured are the stairs up to our apartment. I've never really thought about them much except for when we were moving in and hauling everything up those stairs or when Christmas time comes and we put lights up and down and around all of those bars.Then I had Hyrum.
When I came home from the hospital and I looked at those stairs loathing came into my heart. "I have to walk up those stairs when I haven't been out of a bed for two days and I've only been shuffling since"
Then when I ventured out of my apartment the next day came the fear. I didn't trust myself ( or anyone else for awhile ) to carry Hyrum down the stairs. I don't know why but every time I got to the top of the stairs I pictured myself dropping him or falling down myself without anyway to protect him or myself from major injury and possibly death. I chocked it up to newborn nerves and figured it would pass but it never really did. Just this last week I stood at the top of the stairs and saw the scenario playing out in my head: Missing my footing or catching my heel, falling, tumbling out of control. It was crazy. I never thought I'd be so afraid of stairs.
We both thought for sure the door was all the way closed yesterday evening. But then I heard it. Derek was outside I was in the kitchen. I don't remember getting to the door but I will never forget seeing Hyrum laying at the bottom of the stairs. Crying. Thank heaven crying.
I scooped him up and ran into the apartment. Derek and a neighbor gave him a blessing and we were off to the after hours medical clinic. He'd stopped crying for the most part by the end of the blessing and by the time we got him in the car and on the way to the clinic he was smiling and laughing from time to time.
He got checked out. They even did a couple of X-rays to make sure nothing was damaged more than we could see and they said he looked fine. He was acting normal (spinning the doctors chair and pushing it around the room- thankfully when he wasn't on it) walking normal and still doing his signs (that's the post I intended to do yesterday but was preempted by this turn of events ). He's a tough little kid! And way to busy and fearless for his own good.
He was crying here not so much that he was in pain (although that may have been some of it) but that he wanted to go back outside to play with all of the kids. He no doubt would have walked right back out the door and down the stairs if I'd let him or turned my back for a second and the door was in the least degree ajar. We are in such a different stage now. I'm not ready!This is how he looks today.
Older. Wiser? We hope so! Definitely looks better! Babies heal so fast. We hope nightmares don't follow but we hope that he looks at the stairs with a little more caution.Derek is planning on installing a gate in front of our door. If you are planning on coming and seeing us, plan to step over the gate because it is not coming down until we leave these apartments.
9 comments:
Nikki said...
oh!!! My poor baby Hyrum!! Just lock that door behind you every time that you walk through it. That must have been a scary fall... For all of you!
Dave said...
Nikki fell down stairs in our North Park house when she was about 18 months - they were wooden. We were so upset that we had the stairs carpeted right away, and I think put up a gate. There was a landing part way down where she landed.
Yours seem much steeper and of concrete and steel, oh my! We were just sick to see this (as we know you were), we're just so thankful that it doesn't seem to be as bad as it looked and sounded.
House, House, where are you?
Pam said...
Oh, Sunny.... It had been my nightmare ever since you moved there, but especially while you were pregnant and of course when Hy began moving around the apartment. I am so grateful he is OK. It is a miracle. We all need to be thankful.
Harrisons said...
A little neighbor friend of yours told me about this at church and I was so worried for you! We have a gate on our back porch but unfortunately the girl can climb up it if she's barefoot! This also took me back to that horrifying moment when my son was about the same age and fell out of the motor home, onto the steps covered with non slip, sandpaper like stuff. His whole face was a bloody scratched up mess. (Thank goodness my friend the ER nurse was right there because I was shaking so bad I couldn't have told you my own name!) You will be amazed at how fast he heals.
Brei said...
Poor thing...I'm glad he's alright! But, just wait till #3...falling down stairs will be one of the least of your worries!
Sunny said...
Don't scare me Brei! Although the both the doctor and the nurse asked us if he was our first. I was wavering between if he was asking so he could take away any other children we had to protect them from these negligent parents or if we were just newbie enough not to have made the precautions we should have. I think it may have been both!
Kelly said...
Glad he's doing alright. With some of the things that my kids have managed to scrape through, I honestly wonder how any of us survive childhood with all the accidents we have (some self-inflicted, some sibling-inflicted). Give them lots of love!
Binne77 said...
Binne77 said...
Oh sweety. Let me tell you something...it's OKAY! (he looks better btw, from the most recent blog)
I'll just make you feel like a great mom w/ this quick story. Daniel was hyrums age and I needed to do the dishes. I went back into the kitchen..NOT thinking he would e-v-e-r climb on the back of the couch to the very open front windows. I came back about 10 minutes later and Daniel as gone. The screen to my front window was missing!!
I FREAKED OUT. I went to run outside to look frantically for him and my neighbor down the way (big Will, we called him..no lie.) knocked on my door. He was laughing at me and said...I saw him fall out your front window. I figured you were doing dishes or in the bathroom or something.
I was mortified. Daniel was pretty cut up on his face and legs, from the fall out the window, into a holly bush. (they are prickly!)
I shut the windows and ran the A/C from that point forward.
See it happens to the best of us. :-)