In Which Much Sadness Occurs

We spent most of today indoors, doing a little play therapy, catching up on some housework, and just taking it easy.

Well, let me clarify. We spent the first half of the day catching up on some housework and doing some of Connor's therapeutic exercises. We spent the second half of the day taking it easy, due to Mommy Guilt over a traumatic experience involving Connor's big therapy ball.

Ah, Mommy Guilt. I know thee well.

We've got one of those huge balls that were so popular for exercise a couple of years ago. We use it for balance and postural activities with Connor at home; by bouncing, rolling, and moving him around on it in various positions we can get him to work different sets of muscles in his torso. Anyway, our ball was running a little low on air, but being lazy and not wanting to dig the pump out of the closet, I figured it would still work just fine for a few more days. I took the ball out into the living room and started maneuvering him around on it.

Now unbeknownst to me, when the ball isn't completely inflated it has a tendency to slide rather than roll around on the carpet. I had Connor face down on the ball doing some tummy time and rocking back and forth when the ball suddenly lurched out from under him. Since I had my hands on him on either side to prevent him from falling off but I wasn't supporting his weight, he slipped through my fingers and plummeted towards the ground.

There's a reflex kids are supposed to develop when they're around eight or nine months old. It's called the "parachute reflex," and basically it's a protective reflex that makes you put your arms out in front of you to catch yourself when you are falling. Here's a video of it if you want to see it. Connor doesn't have this reflex; he still does what babies do before they develop this reflex and brings his arms back towards his body. As a result, he landed flat as a pancake on the carpet, face first.

Luckily Connor has a squishy little nose and we were on carpet, so nothing was broken. He was horribly startled though, and cried like it hurt quite a bit. That was the end of our home therapy session for the day, and consumed by a bad case of Mommy Guilt, I did nothing more strenuous with him after that than watching multiple back-to-back episodes of Fraggle Rock.

This is why I worry about him learning to walk. Not that it wouldn't be wonderful and all, but think about how many times kids fall down while they are learning to walk. Now think about those kids falling down and doing face plants every time. Makes me wince just thinking about it.

Guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.


~Jess