Hi special people,
I know, it’s been long since I wrote and I’m sure it’ll be evident in my words because even coming up with these ones has been such a sport. Life is crazy, adulthood is tiring and trying to be a mother, a working citizen and a constant story teller is quite wild for me. I mean inauma but inabidi uzoee.
A mum asked me something that I found necessary to share as I have very vivid memories of the same.
“How do you prevent your child from falling when they are at that crawling stage?” Any mums reading this, do you remember the first time your child fell? The pain you felt? The knots in your tummy? Your heart breaking? I remember…
I had sworn that it would never ever happen to us. I used to watch my children very closely and I managed very well for the better part of the stage. I had learned of this hack where they would spend their day on a play mat and even sleep there during the day. The only time they would get on a raised place that is the bed is when we were going to sleep. Smart mum huh? So I thought…
Alma first…
On this day, I had just bathed them, changed into sleeping outfits then gave them their last bottle of Uji for the day. I tucked them in bed and told myself I’ll just dash to the kitchen to keep the feeding bottles before we sleep. A child who is full and about to sleep is always inactive so I didn’t think much about it plus it’s not like I was going to hide and eat my wow wow like I do. I swear, it wasn’t even 30 seconds of my absence I just heard a thud (thank God we had a heavy carpet) I almost twisted my leg because of the jump I made. I got to the bedroom and saw my little girl on the floor, I’ll not even get started on the cry. I literally sat on the floor, held her and started crying too. I didn’t know what to do. I had never thought that day would come considering how ‘careful’ I’d been. I took her to my neighbor’s who would then finally teach me how to look for a point of pain or if she’s hurt then give her a painkiller.
Ava’s turn…
This whole thing where people say that if something happens to one twin then it’ll happen to another, I never used to be a believer even though I lived with my sisters and saw it happen to them. After Alma’s fall I became more alert, even those feeding bottles used to be placed next to the bed because I couldn’t take another fall. So this day I’m from bathing Ava just in the bedroom, I place her on the bed then turn to push the basin away. Surely, this girl was on the floor already 😩. At first I was so mad I remember asking myself how she couldn’t recall her sister falling from the same bed. Then it hit me just how old she was then. Atleast this time I had the skills though.
My point is, no matter how careful you are, these growing people are so swift and the fall happens in just a second. I remember feeling like a failure for a minute there when both those falls happened then you talk and interact with other mums out here and realize that it’s so normal. It’s part of growth I guess. So what you can do best is just pick them up from the floor when it happens. Shalom!
raising2 