Tragic's Minor Nightmare or
When the bough breaks, the cradel will fall...

Had a scary story of my own the other day.

I get interrupted at work by a call from my lady love - she's in the emergency room with the baby. Thankfully I have an understanding, accomodating boss. Not only does she tell me to just drop all that I was working on, but she drives me to the hospital and reassures me the whole way.

"Babies are resiliant," she tells me. They can take a lickin' and keep on tickin'. This is something a lot of people are going to tell us over the next little while, coupled with stories of the time their own baby dropped. The sentiment is appreciated but it doesn't keep me from freaking out.

The emergency room is a maze of doors and hallways and a line of the walking wounded, waiting for admission. Somewhere behind all the doors I can hear my son screaming. If there's a top ten list of sounds you never want to hear, that one's definitely on there somewhere inbetween fingernails scratching on a blackboard and the sound of your own guts spilling onto the floor. It was compounded by not being able to find which door or hallway he was down, nor being able to get to anyone who could show me to him. I finally found them when I caught a glimpse of my wife behind a door that was just closing.

One of the local movie theatre chains has a special for mothers of newborns. It's a matinee showing where the films are childrens films, romantic comedies and other light fare. As everyone attending this screening is a mother of a newborn, there's not the same feeling of embaressment when the child cries or needs to be breast fed. The lights aren't fully darkened so that mothers can take the babies out to the change table and the volume is kept low for sensitive little ears. All in all a wonderful program. It gives moms a chance to go out and see the films they'd otherwise be missing, but more importantly it gives them a social event with other adults so they don't go stir crazy.

So my wife went to the showing at our local theatre. This particular theatre chain had just initiated the program and so they weren't as clued in as they should be. The lights were completely out and the volume up to full. So my lady love goes out to tell management to please turn down the volume. Unfortunately this is one of those theatres with godawful steps that don't fully line up with the aisles. When she went to return to her seat she tripped and both her and the baby fell off the steps into the aisle. Her right arm took the brunt of the fall -she was doing what she could to protect him- but the little guy's head still took a whack against the concrete.

The doctor informs me that the little guy's x-rays show nothing wrong and provided that there's no vomiting or lethargy he should be ok. My lady love has a fractured wrist that will stay in a cast for the next six to eight weeks. Baby was clingy before the accident - now he just doesn't want to let go which means hours on end of my walking and rocking him. By the time my wife's arm is better, I figure my back will be permenantly out of commission.

Thankfully, it's not as bad as it could have been. But lordy... that's enough fright to last me through to next Halloween.