Unexpected Blessings

When Elijah was two he was an incredible sleeper. A little snack, a bedtime story, his prayer and he was down for 12 hours straight. He would stay in his bed in the morning until we came and got him. Perfect, easy baby. One night though, he started fussing. I could hear him fidgeting around and definitely not sleeping. This wasn't unusual, but I usually would just roll over and both of us would be asleep within a matter of minutes. This night though, this night was different. Call it mother's instinct or God's prompting but I got up. Let me just say, for the record that I was pregnant at this time so being upright was not always the most pleasant. It turned out that his diaper had leaked, which turned out to be miraculous itself. If he hadn't been wet I would have given him a kiss and told him to go back to sleep. But he was wet so I had to turn a light on to change him. I had to move him to his changing table so I could clean him up. And because I hadn't just rolled over, because he was wet and I had to get him out of bed I saw that his lammy had gotten wrapped around his thumb. So many times and so tight that the end of his thumb was moving well past purple on it's way to black. I have no doubt that had I not gotten up, had his diaper not leaked he would have lost the tip of his thumb. It was 2:00 in the morning. At least 6 hours before I would have gone into his room to get him.

Two nights ago, after a completely normal night, I had just gotten Elijah to go to bed and plopped down on our bed to look at Bridgett on the monitor. Don-e was at training so I was planning on doing some last minute chores and relaxing. But Bridgett was making some funny noises. She's been in bed for about an hour and a half, and it wasn't unusual for her to wake up but she would usually put herself back to sleep. But she was making funny noises so I laid down on my bed to check on her. She started vomiting. Horribly, and as she was on her back she was choking on it. I've never run so fast. What would have happened if I had been doing the dishes and hadn't heard her? If I had just ignored the urge to check the monitor. She was swallowing so much that she couldn't even cry. Afterwards she was fine. We took a shower and cuddled for awhile and then she went back to sleep without any further problems. Except that it happened again last night. Only we had already gone to bed. Again, with the perfect timing, at about 11:15 I woke up and turned the display part of Bridgett's monitor on. She had just started throwing up again. She was on her back and choking. Don-e hadn't fallen asleep yet, he was messing around on his phone, and as I had just come out of a dead sleep I yelled at him "she's choking, GO!" and then followed as fast as I could without walking into a wall. She again, was fine afterward. She has a cold and is teething so I think the amount of mucus and drool she swallows when she is laying down is what is making her sick. But I don't usually wake up in the middle of the night. What would have happened if I hadn't? What if we hadn't held her upright so she could clear out her airway? But this night I did. I rolled over at the perfect moment to see her start to be sick. And we were there to pick her up and make it all better. And one night, a year ago I was there to unwrap a beloved lammy and kiss a booboo.

All I can say is God is good.