Tripped and Fell

Towards the end of class yesterday, Sophia tripped and fell on her face on the carpeted floor.As usual, she wasn't paying attention nor following the other kids in doing class material, she was walking around on the outer perimetre of the circle of moms and kids while I was trying to keep her bottle of water in the bag.

Naturally, after she fell on her face, she started bawling. I tried placating her, checking her nose and face, and not seeing anything, tried to quiet her and not make a big deal of it. Still she continued crying and making the sign for her security blanket, so much so that I had to take her out of the class, fearing she might be disrupting. And also because her security blanket and her pacifier were outside in the stroller.

Kindermusik at Tanglin Mall is a really small place and the reception area is so small that when class is in session, all moms have to park our strollers outside of the place, next to the display window of another retail outlet. Other than stopping by the reception and wait area to sterilise our hands, it's really not a place you want to be hanging out, especially if there are other people waiting and you've got a screaming kid on your hands.

It wasn't until I was at the stroller and had gotten her blanket and was about to go back into class that I noticed that the blanket had patches of blood on it. Sophie's blood. And she was still crying. At first I thought she might have hit her nose and that the blood was from a nosebleed. After a quick check, I realised it wasn't her nose but it was her mouth she was bleeding from. When I managed to sneak a look, I almost fainted from the sight of blood covering her entire set of 8 teeth and gums. Not that the sight of blood makes me woozy or anything but more from the shock of so much of it oozing out from the poor girl and the fact that I actually missed it initially (what kind of a mom am I?). A concerned grandma waiting at the reception for her grandchild helpfully told me to give Sophie a sweet to soothe her (??) and pointed to a bloody patch on my sweater where Sophie had leaned her head against my shoulder while crying.

All this while, I'm beginning to feel the throes of panic setting in; I had no idea how to deal with this situation and I wasn't entirely sure just how bad her cut was and how much longer she was going to bleed. I didn't even know to ask the staff for help, neither did I know what to ask for if I'd asked them. And Sophie is screaming bloody murder and tugging at my top, yelling, "Nenn-nennnnnn! Nenn-neennnnnn!! Nennn-neeeeeennnnnn!!!"

So I bundled her up as best I could and pushed the stroller out while carrying her in my other arm and headed to the baby care room where I could give her the nenn-nennnnnn!! that she was screaming for. We drew a few stares on the way from Kinderusik to the baby care room. A few amused parents changing their kids in the baby care room looked up at her protests for nenn-nennnn, and she continued to voice her hurt and displeasure until I stuffed my boob into her mouth. By then her bleeding had stopped, she was tired out from her traumatic experience as well as overdue for a nap and her mouth was doing something other than screaming; I was more or less calmer and she promptly fell asleep at the boob after about 10 minutes of suckling.

In hindsight, it was just as traumatic an experience for me as it was for her. It hit me just how unprepared I was and still am for emergencies. While hoping that I won't have to go through too many of these incidents, I'm now trying to read up more on first aid and emergencies so that I can be better prepared in the future. But then again, if you know what kind of emergency's gonna happen, it wouldn't be an emergency then, would it?

Damned if you do and damned if you don't. Sigh...