Monday, March 26, 2012

4th child rolls off parents' bed

You'd think I would have learned by now. Not a proud parenting achievement, I'll admit, but all four of our children have rolled off our bed when they were babies.

Today was Rowan's turn. I discovered today that he's now reached the age where he can't be left unattended on our bed anymore. I left him there asleep while I came downstairs to send a few work emails and to make a list of what was still needed to finish Aidan's school project that's due tomorrow.

While I was on the computer he woke up and I could hear him whingeing. Then...thump.

From prior experience, I knew immediately what the sound was. There was a moment of silence before the screaming began.

When I raced upstairs, I found him flat on his back on the floor looking a bit shocked. Fortunately otherwise unhurt. A feed fixed him up fairly quickly, thank goodness.

Each time this has happened (I've never actually witnessed it occurring, I guess if I was around I would have saved them before it could happen), I've always said to myself that I'll never let it happen again. And it's only happened once for each of my children. Aidan was the unluckiest one. The house we lived in when he was a baby had wooden floors in our bedroom. That was a heavy landing. All the others have landed on carpet.

Maybe I should just think of it as a family tradition. Perhaps one that I'm not as keen to hand on to future generations. I'm thankful that he's okay. And I now know that letting him sleep on our bed is no longer an option.

It's like a graduation day. He's not my little newborn anymore.

3 comments:

Deb said...

When I was a baby, my parents used to put me to sleep in a slightly rounded-bottom Moses basket on top of a low steamer trunk in their bedroom (they were missionaries in south-east asia - that explains the exotic basket and steamer trunk). One day, my mother came back to the bedroom to check on me and I was gone! The basket was still there, undisturbed, but their darling baby was missing. Horror! Much panic ensued until someone looked under the bed. I had wriggled, the basket had rocked, then tipped, and I had rolled out, plonk, on to the floor and continued rolling until I was under the bed. Either I hadn't woken up at all or when I'd woken I'd decided it all wasn't so bad and just gone back to sleep. Long story to say, it didn't do me any discernible harm!

Karen said...

What a chilled out little baby you must have been, Deb...

Deb said...

Yeah. Pity the "chilled out" nature didn't stick! I don't think anyone would ever describe me as "laid back" nowadays.