One LONG Moment in Time

I had a major scare with Belle this afternoon. She was eating a slice of apple and it got stuck in her throat. She couldn't breathe but was making a quiet moaning kind of noise and clearly freaking out. I managed to dislodge it by leaning her over on my lap and beating on her back. She threw it all up. I don't think that the apple was in her throat for more than 10 seconds, but who knows... when your baby isn't breathing, time stands still. I don't think she ever turned blue, but I couldn't see her face. Afterwards she cried and hugged me for probably about a minute then sat with me and watched TV and drank milk for about another 5 minutes, but then went right back to playing and wanted another piece of apple.

Since having Belle, I've always thought about taking CPR classes, but really think that I should now. After the incident happened I started searching websites to see if I even did the right thing or what I should do if that were to happen again. Different websites actually weigh in differently about whether hitting her back to dislodge the object was the right thing to do first or if I should have gone straight to the Heimlich. Fortunately for me, the back hitting thing worked. I remember learning in high school health class that you should try to sweep/hook the object out of the throat if someone is choking, but then the stuff that I read today said not to do that because it pushes the object in further unless she's already unconscious. Fortunately she never got to that point, but I didn't realize that was a tactic that you only use when someone is unconscious so I might have tried that if the hitting thing hadn't worked.

Anyway, I wish Annabelle wouldn't stuff so much food in her mouth at the same time, but without giving her tiny pieces of everything that she eats and only giving her those tiny pieces one bit at a time, I can't really control it. Of course Keith and I are constantly telling her to "bite" things that are bigger than bite size, and she'll usually do it when she is told directly, but then as soon as we turn around she's stuffed a whole cookie or whatever in her face. Hopefully this won't happen again (knock on wood) with Belle or any other kids I know, but if it does, I hope that I'm better prepared because I can't imagine how it would feel if there hadn't been a good outcome! *sigh*