Rude Awakening
Yesterday I was about to wake toddler Drake from his nap. (Within the past year, I’ve had to modify my “never wake the child” rule, because if he napped late, then he stayed up late, so it became a choice between shortening the nap, or pushing back the bedtime.) On the monitor, I heard movement and thought, “He’s waking himself. Perfect timing.” Then I heard a giant thump and a loud wail. With baby Guppy in my arms, I raced up the steps and into his room, where he was getting off the floor next to his bed, blood dripping from his face. “Nosebleed,” I thought. “I can handle this.” I tried to hug him, he rebuffed me, so I went to the hall to get a towel, choosing a dark red one, so he wouldn’t be so alarmed by the blood. I returned, and was trying to calm him and wipe up a bit, when he let out another loud wail, displaying a mouthful of blood. Since he wouldn’t let me near him, and I now wanted help, I put Guppy in his crib, then called my neighbor who said she could be right over. Guppy, of course, had also begun to wail by this point. The neighbor arrived and tended to Guppy, who was happy as long as he was being held. I managed to coax Drake into my arms finally. He said his nose hurt, but not his tongue, so we figured that the blood in the mouth was backwash from the nose. He eventually stopped crying, then let me put him down with a few whimpers here and there. We knew he was OK when he asked me to play cars with him.
I’d been thinking that it would probably be OK to get rid of the monitor in Drake’s room now that he’s almost three, since having one for each boy is cumbersome. He’s a good sleeper and has been in his bed for seven months. But I was glad for the monitor yesterday, since it let me respond to him quickly. The monitor stays, for now.