I'm a clumsy mother

[Anonymous]

Have you ever unintentionally hurt your baby? I'm not naturally graceful and I'm worried that my poor coordination will happen when I'm holding or walking with my 6mo baby.

[Anonymous]

When DS was about 9 months old I was going through airport security. In my rush to snap the car seat back into the snap and go frame I accidentally crunched his little fingers. He yelled and cried. I felt awful!!!! I think I was just about in tears.

Anyway a really nice TSA woman came over and told me he'd be fine (fingers were a little pink but not bruised or anything) and that he would get over it very quickly and not even remember it. She was sweet and calmed me down.

That same trip he bumped his head on a bed frame. Again he howled and cried. I was so upset. My friend already had two kids and her husband is a doctor so they thought it was funny to tell me he would be damaged forever. I wasn't amused but they reminded me that kids are fairly resilient and they can take a few bumps and bruises.

You'll be fine I am clumsy too. You should be more worried the baby will inherit your clumsiness; my son literally ran into a pole yesterday and scraped his arm and bonked his head when he fell down. He was fine and running around 5 min later but it was pretty shocking.His knees and elbows look awful every since shorts and tee shirt weather arrived. But he is happy and healthy.

Just kidding that you have to worry about your kid inheriting your clumsiness but my point is that we worry so much when they are young but in a few short years they will hitting themselves over the head with a toy and laughing or skidding bare knees across the concrete.

Enjoy OP. Seemed like DS was 6 months yesterday and now he is 6.

[Anonymous]

I'm also a clumsy mom. I dropped my baby 2 times trying to maneuver a baby sling - one time it was from about 5 feet above ground, his head hit the floor hard. He screamed bloody murder - I was mortified and took him to the ER. CAT scan showed no damage - thank god. He's 8 now and doing fine. Phew!

[Anonymous]

OP, every mom (clumsy or not) has a story about unintentionally hurting her kid. You are not alone, and you will be fine. You sound like a great mom. Try not to worry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, every mom (clumsy or not) has a story about unintentionally hurting her kid. You are not alone, and you will be fine. You sound like a great mom. Try not to worry.

This.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, every mom (clumsy or not) has a story about unintentionally hurting her kid. You are not alone, and you will be fine. You sound like a great mom. Try not to worry.

Thank you, PP. I'm OP. I dropped my phone on my baby's face while he was eating a bottle and he cried a little bit I quickly calmed him down and he seemed fine. The corner of the phone (protected by a case with round corners) hit his cheekbone, and it was about a 4 inch drop. However, this is my first so I don't have a lot of experience with babies' resilience and freaked out. It was midnight and i was tired so my emotions were all the more heightened. I've already had two other minor incidents, so I'm just hoping this is the worst I'll do!

[Anonymous]

This is normal, OP. We all unintentionally do things like this. Hang in there.

[Anonymous]

If you know you're clumsy, you'll end of taking extra care, which is good. Life with a baby means slowing down your previous pace anyway, so just take your time and don't try to multitask and it'll be fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Have you ever unintentionally hurt your baby? I'm not naturally graceful and I'm worried that my poor coordination will happen when I'm holding or walking with my 6mo baby.

When I was a ftm I scratched my 3 month old son with my engagement ring while changing his diaper. It was just a little scratch and he barely made a fuss over it. I bawled and would get teary eyed for a couple weeks after anytime I would see the mark or think about it. Don't worry we have all btdt and because you are hyper aware of it, you'll be just fine.

[Anonymous]

I'm also clumsy but have generally not found this to be a problem.

The worst thing that happened was that once my DS moved a bit as I was strapping him into the carseat. It was summertime, so he had on shorts, and I snapped a bit of his skin into the buckle. Oh, I felt sooooooooo bad! He cried for about a minute and then was totally fine. He was about 6 months at the time.

I don't have great depth perception due to one eye that's dominant and the other that's more passive (they work fine, but they don't cooperate quite like they should, so I can't ever see 3D things). I know this about myself and am extra careful, but it's honestly never resulted in anything major happening. You'll be fine!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have you ever unintentionally hurt your baby? I'm not naturally graceful and I'm worried that my poor coordination will happen when I'm holding or walking with my 6mo baby.

When I was a ftm I scratched my 3 month old son with my engagement ring while changing his diaper. It was just a little scratch and he barely made a fuss over it. I bawled and would get teary eyed for a couple weeks after anytime I would see the mark or think about it. Don't worry we have all btdt and because you are hyper aware of it, you'll be just fine.

Rings are awful, right? I have a 3 year old who will grab my hand sometime and put it up to his cheek, and sometimes he grabs the one with my ring on it. Luckily, it's never hurt him more than a little scrape but always makes me worried.

[Anonymous]

Now I'm remembering all kinds of things that were horrible but seem funny in retrospect! I once was playing with my toddler by picking him up in the air by his legs and swinging him and putting him down on the floor, and one time I missed and put him down too hard because I thought he was a little higher than I expected. I felt so bad, since we were playing and he was supposed to be having fun. He cried but then wanted to do more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm also clumsy but have generally not found this to be a problem.

The worst thing that happened was that once my DS moved a bit as I was strapping him into the carseat. It was summertime, so he had on shorts, and I snapped a bit of his skin into the buckle. Oh, I felt sooooooooo bad! He cried for about a minute and then was totally fine. He was about 6 months at the time.

I don't have great depth perception due to one eye that's dominant and the other that's more passive (they work fine, but they don't cooperate quite like they should, so I can't ever see 3D things). I know this about myself and am extra careful, but it's honestly never resulted in anything major happening. You'll be fine!

I did this too! I felt terrible, and my DD cried and had a mark on her leg for at least a week. Just today I was in a busy parking lot with her and she was getting in the car when a person was trying to walk past the door. I thought she was already inside the car so I closed the door a bit to let the other person pass - and bumped her with the door. Argh.

As many stupid ways as I've unfortunately found to hurt my kid, I am one of the few moms I know who doesn't have a story about the kid falling off the changing table.

We all do this stuff, OP. It sucks but it happens. You just fix whatever damage is done, snuggle and kiss, apologize, and move on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm also clumsy but have generally not found this to be a problem.

The worst thing that happened was that once my DS moved a bit as I was strapping him into the carseat. It was summertime, so he had on shorts, and I snapped a bit of his skin into the buckle. Oh, I felt sooooooooo bad! He cried for about a minute and then was totally fine. He was about 6 months at the time.

I don't have great depth perception due to one eye that's dominant and the other that's more passive (they work fine, but they don't cooperate quite like they should, so I can't ever see 3D things). I know this about myself and am extra careful, but it's honestly never resulted in anything major happening. You'll be fine!

Thank you! And as a total aside, have you gotten examined for strabismus? I have the same symptoms you describe and that was my ophthalmologist's diagnosis. I wonder if this contributes to my clumsiness?

[Anonymous]

OP, even non-clumsy moms can have accidents. The best thing you can do to take care of your baby is to take good care of yourself and be well-rested.

When one of my little ones was only a few weeks old, I missed the second to last stair and went tumbling down. Fortunately, I managed to hold onto my baby and fall in such a way that I broke her fall, but she did come down hard. I was so paranoid, I went to the ER and had her checked out. She was fine.

I was a serious dancer (ballet) in my younger years, and in the normal course of things, I'm fairly graceful. Sleep deprivation led to fatigue, which led to poor coordination and an accident.

Go easy on yourself!