My first Valentine’s Day as a Mum
started off very interestingly.
If I’m completely honest, I totally
forgot that Valentine’s Day was coming up. Since AJ’s birth, my days have all
kind of blurred together and I’ve only looked at a calendar when I needed to
know a date for some paperwork. So I didn’t know that it was Valentine’s Day
until I came downstairs at 8am to feed AJ and was scrolling through Facebook. I
didn’t feel bad that I forgot. T and I don’t really do Valentine’s Day. I’m not
one for flowers, I prefer to get a plant than cut flowers, and neither of us
really feel like going out and doing things.
As I scrolled through Facebook, my
sleep-deprived brain forgot about the day before and the vomit filled day we
had had. For the past week or so I had been noticing symptoms from AJ that made
me suspect that she had a mild form of reflux. Not bad enough to disrupt her
sleep but enough that if we didn’t do certain things during her feed it would
result in her bringing up part of it. However, if we broke up her bottle and
burped her multiple times during it, then kept her upright for 20-30 minutes
afterward the vomiting wouldn’t occur. We may have to contend with some spit
up but she would look a portion of her meal.
The day before was filled with a lot
of trying things out until we fine-tuned it and had a relatively easy night. I
lost a little bit more sleep than I normally would as the new routine would
take 45 minutes compared to the 20 it would normally take but the end result
was that AJ was sleeping better and for longer periods so it was worth
it.
However, as I gave AJ her bottle, I
didn’t break it up as much as I had during the night. We came to the end and I
went to move her from the reclined position in my arms, to over my shoulder to
burp her and initiated the first wave.
In my career as a nanny, I had been in
the receiving end of vomit many times. Normally I’m very quick and I’m able to
avoid getting any of it on me. I blame lack of sleep for not reacting quick
enough, but then how can I prepare myself for being hit with vomit as if it was
a machine gun in WW2 cutting down Nazis?
 |
| One shower and a bath after this all happened. |
The only thing that my experience
allowed me to do was to keep cool, calm and collected and not become over-dramatic like an actor in a war
movie from the 1950's: “Ah! I’ve been hit! Goodbye cruel world! Johnny, tell mama that I
love her. Tell Peggy she was the only girl for me! Oh! Oh! I see the light.
It’s so pretty!”
Thankfully I was the only victim and
because I was going to have a shower once T woke up, I gave myself and AJ a
wipe down, not too worried about how it looked for the moment.
This attack seemed to settle AJ for
the moment and there was no more vomit directed at me for a while. AJ was able
to drift off to sleep as I had my own breakfast and looked through
Instagram.
Time passed and once again AJ let me
know that she was hungry. A bottle was prepared, we got comfortable and this
time I was much more attentive to the new routine, making sure to stop and burp
her intermittently. 20 minutes later she had her fill and I decided to
experiment and let her stay reclined for a little bit to see if letting things
settle first before I moved her helped at all.
That was my second mistake of the
morning.
Two minutes passed and I heard AJ make
a gagging noise. I looked down to see that she was in fact gagging and I moved
her to see if that helped and so I could flip her onto her stomach if I had
misinterpreted what I was seeing and she was choking instead.
I hit my third mistake at that moment.
Moving her quickly from reclined to
sitting jump-started a fountain of vomit that erupted from her as if someone
had made a hole in a water balloon and was just letting the water flow from it. It lasted two-second as lost but it was enough to cover me and the
couch.
Then there was a pause and it stopped.
I held my breath, hoping that that would be it. I was wrong.
The second fountain of vomit clicking
in quickly and this time my phone was included in the victims as well as myself
and the couch. The only person would walk away without vomit on themselves was
Arlo, who AJ had missed entirely despite him being pressed up against me and
supervising AJ’s bottle time.
Then, as if nothing had happened, AJ
slipped off into unconsciousness, leaving me to handle to clean up.
I can’t fault her decision as if I was
able to pass the clean-up off to someone else and have a nap I would have done
the same. Instead, I gave AJ a wipe over (which she did not appreciate) and then
focused on the couch before heading upstairs for the shower I was now looking
forward to immensely.
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