Sunday, March 8, 2009

She fell off the bed!

Salma fell off the bed last night for the first time! Wakakaka. It was around 3 am. I've been expecting this to happen ever since she started rolling over on her own (and from all the input that experienced moms have been giving me), and was less surprised about it than my husband, who seemed pretty shocked and pissed off that it happened. If you haven't guessed, she still sleeps with us, and I haven't gotten round to training her to sleep on her own in the cot for the entire night yet. Usually she sleeps in the center, but sometimes I switch breasts for night feeds, and when she falls asleep on the other side, I usually don't move her back to the middle.

She is quite a lasak baby. And I haven't figured out what the English translation of the word "lasak" is yet, but it means "cannot sit still". But I don't think she was asleep when she fell off, I think she must have been awake for quite some time and was rolling around until she fell off with a resounding "thud!" The "thud" sound woke me up and then the screaming cry. I picked her up off of the floor and my husband quickly grabbed her from me (as if I was the one that pushed her off the bed), and started to soothe her by carressing her head gently. She stopped crying and looked more shocked than hurt. She was uninjured, but continued to look shocked while I fed her. The funny thing was, she didn't fall parallel to the bed as I'd expected, but perpendicular to it. I just couldn't help laughing to myself because I knew this was going to happen, just as it happened to me, and my little brother and sister while we were growing up. I remember my brother fell off the bed several times. And each time he pretended that it didn't happen. Can you imagine a baby that was embarrassed about falling off the bed, or embarrassed about pooping in his diaper in public (he had to hide behind a curtain or a pillar)... that was my little brother when he was a baby.

Salma was giggling after half an hour. She didn't go back to sleep straight away. I cradled her for awhile before dozing off myself. And she went right back to sleep. I sincerely hope she remembers that she fell off, and how she fell off, so that she won't try to do it again. I don't know how a baby's memory works at 5 months, but I sure hope she remembers something of the experience so as not to repeat it, cos I let her lie on the bed by herself with pillows as barriers while I am doing other stuff in the room. I sometimes spread the duvet on the floor for her to roll around too. But I will probably start training her to sleep in the cot in earnest now. hehe.

3 comments:

  1. Your friendly debate partner from KTJ :)June 16, 2009 at 8:16 AM

    Nads..

    Really enjoy reading your blog. It is very obvious that you really love your daughter! My kid's 2 year old now and yes, he's had his fair share of rolling off the bed too!

    In fact it's happened three times. The first time it happened, we were downstairs watching TV when we heard this sudden thud! I sprinted up the stairs like a lightning bolt.

    The second time it happened, it was one of those rare occasions when he slept at the side of the bed. We didn't want to move him for fear of waking him up. Again I was woken by this massive thud!

    Third time was a bit strange as he was sleeping in between us. He somehow managed to roll OVER my wife and off the bed. And again there was the, by now familiar, thud!

    Through sheer luck, more than anything, we were lucky that he wasn't injured as
    firstly - through my own incompetence with DIY and refusal to read the assembly instructions - I assembled our bed few notches too low. So the height of the fall wasn't too great.

    Secondly, we live in this old house, with carpet on creaky floor boards. So that helped cushioned the fall.

    He did in the end get his own though.

    We were at this hotel out in the countryside where the double bed was really a glorified single bed.

    The mattress was so springy that when I roll to one side, my son would roll to my side and when my wife rolls to the other side, my son would roll in the opposite direction.

    At some point in the middle of the night, he probably decided to make some space for himself and rolled me off the bed. I woke up staring at the ceiling which by now was some distance away from me!

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  2. I'm guessing that this is Shazrul?? Your son slept in between both you and your wife and he still managed to roll off the bed! That is one true champion there! ahaha. Well, having a low bed helps! I liked how he managed to push you off too! Well, Salma has not fallen off the bed since, and God forbid it should happen again. I hope she never really learns to crawl and skips this step and starts walking straight away!

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  3. Your friendly KTJ debaterJune 16, 2009 at 5:33 PM

    How did you guess? :) Yeah memang champion. Mat salleh don't rate bed sharing for obvious reasons. But as we always go to bed clean i.e. don't smoke, 100% sober and definitely not skanky, I think the risk is pretty low for us. Would love to give him his own bed now that he's already two, but apa nak buat, rumah tak muat.

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