Scary Moments

I hope no one ever has to watch their child choke.

As a mom, I've never been so panicked in my whole life.

We were sitting in the living room last night; Brett was playing on his PSP, I was surfing the net, and Hazel was going between the 2 of us, wanting to do what we were. Brett and her were sharing starburst candies and she must have gotten too big of a peice or was eating it and swallowed too quickly or something, but suddenly, she scrambled off the couch over to me, with a very panicked look on her face. She slightly coughed for a second, and I realised she couldn't breathe, so I picked her up and started whacking the highest plart of her back with the heel of my hand. It took what felt like several minutes to get it dislodged, but was actually more like 30-45 seconds. Just long enough to see her lips turning blue. I never wanna see that ever again. Once I saw that she was coughing a little and trying to throw it up, I stuck my finger in her throat (not far) just far enough to trigger a stronger gag for her. It took a few moments of really heavy gagging to get it up, but it finally came out and her color returned. I really can't remember the last time I just wanted to hold onto her for dear life. Lots of crying all around, from Daddy, Me, and Hazel. It nearly broke Brett's heart, too. I thought he'd never put her down.

I implore to everyone to be double-triple-quadruple sure of the size of foods you feed your baby/toddler/child as well as making sure you talk to a doctor about the best way to handle a choking moment should, heaven forbid, any arrise.

For everyone's sake, I hope no one has to ever worry about this. I pray always that I never have to do it again, either.