Like any other nights, Spud goes down for the day by 6.30pm. Like any other normal nights, Spud goes down without a fight with the usual bedtime routine we have for her. And like any other nights, she will usually have her own downtime of rolling around in bed and talking to herself or her toys before she drifts off to slumber. Most nights, she would sleep through till about 6.30 am the next day.
But last Saturday night was like no other ordinary night we have experienced.
At about 9.25 pm, just as I was about to head to bed, I saw the blue light of the baby monitor flickered, and this was followed by quite a cry. Usually when that happens, we will normally just let her cry for a few minutes before we checking on her; for the chances of her falling back to sleep is high. But that night, her cry turned into inconsolable wail, and after more than 5 minutes, it became a howler of a wail!
I quickly went to check on her, and we found her curled up at the corner of the bed in massive tears. As I turn on the lights, I saw some trails of red stain splattered across the bed. Silver Bullet then asked me what she had for dinner (she had pasta), but it did not seem like Spud had puked out her tomato-based pasta. I was trying to make sense of things, and it took me a while to register that the stain on her bed was actually trails of blood! Not something we would expect…and right there and then, the realisation hit that cripes! Spud cannot be puking blood in her sleep, can she? And why would she puke blood?!
As I picked her up and trying to calm her down, I saw that the top half of her shirt was covered with blood. And as I tried to get the shirt off her (she was completely inconsolable!), I noticed that the blood was trickling from her mouth.
Between the blood-stained bed sheet, wet bloody t-shirt and a wailing baby, there were 2 parents trying to make sense of what had happened, and at the same time, trying to calm down and clean up a possibly frightened toddler.
For a good 10 minutes, nothing we could do was able to calm her down. She did not want to drink, she did not want to be cleaned, she refused to allow any one of us go anywhere near her mouth and she did not want to have anything to do with everything. I started to wonder if we should get to the hospital…but quickly dismissed the thought.
Amidst her violent struggles and mega crying session, we finally managed to clean her up with a wet muslin square which Silver Bullet had fished out, changed her bed sheet and put a clean t-shirt and slapped on a fresh diaper on her. At that point, we were still not sure where the blood was coming from, but it had stopped then. It was a relief that we could not find any traces of blood oozing out of her from anywhere.
Still fighting me with all her might as I was carrying her, I just decided to just put her back into her bed. She did not like it one bit, crying angrily, started clinging on me and refusing to let go. For a split moment, I was afraid that she was not going to go back to sleep at all. The possibility of keeping us awake the entire night seemed so certain!
But frantic as I was, I was surprising rather collected. Instead, I just gave her a kiss and put her back into bed, and we immediately said good night and left her room. Not even 9 seconds later, Spud calmed down and literally stopped crying. Despite stirring a little bit, she fell asleep within 10-15 minutes. (Pheww!)
Now, we both don’t actually know what happened, but we suspected that she may have just clumsily knocked herself on the bars of her bed as she moved about, and somehow hit her lips with her teeth at the same time. Given how much blood the lips and gums can draw, it was hardly surprising.
In any case, that was about the best explanation we can come up with…
While I slept like crap throughout the night, worrying and checking on her a couple of times, Spud slept through till Sunday morning, waking up at 7.30 am and was full of life. There still was a little bit of diluted blood stain on the bed and on her clothes the next day, but it seemed like she has already forgotten what happened the night before.
For me, it was a little bit of an unwelcome scare – as I am sure it must have been for Spud as well! It made me realised how important it is to keep your nerves and composure while having to deal with unexpected shit like that. It also made me realised that having a muslin anywhere handy in the house is a definite must!
Ahhh! The joy of parenting – does not really have to be one that gives you a heart attack, me-thinks.
