14 May 2008

It's all fun and games at the pastors' conference until...

It's funny when the goats do this; not so much when it's your two-year-old.

The second of our two-year-old's three ER visits was for the first time he pulled this stunt last year, following a fall and bump to the head. He recovered almost as fast as the goats, but for reasons of maternal mental well-being, if nothing else, we hauled him in to be looked at. (He was fine.)

So it's happened a couple more times since then, most recently yesterday--at the pastors' conference of all places--but my heart still stops every time, and my good sense has a hard time overriding the adrenaline-reflex of dialing 911.

A family of our acquaintance has 3 kids, all of whom lose consciousness on a regular basis (ie with any temper tantrum of decent proportions) during their young years, and it's totally no big deal for them by now. Me--I'm still pretty freaked out by this. Our guy doesn't do it with tantrums, but when he falls hard enough to give him a scare and knock the wind out of him. We can usually forestall it by picking him up, giving him a little shake during that looooooong pre-scream pause, and firmly saying "BREATHE!"

Lately I've been thinking how very good it is that he likely won't be our "middle child" forever, given what "they" say about middle children. (He's been living the problematic stereotype! But maybe it's just being two...)

I suppose this should give me more empathy for the nanny goats (I know; what is it with me and goats?) but the fainting goats--that's just funny :)

3 comments:

Rebekah said...

Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa--your child does this?

Reb. Mary said...

Perhaps I should have been a bit more specific--he doesn't do *exactly* the same thing as the goats, not nearly as good a party trick :)--I guess it's more of a muscle stiffening thing with them, don't think they actually lose consciousness. BoyTwo, on the other hand, goes limp and passes out when he's really freaked out/holds his breath. The worst is when he kind of convulses a bit, eesh.

Dawn said...

I, er, did that when I was a little girl. The getting angry and my holding breath 'til I passed out thing. After a particularly ugly episode, my father cured me once and for all by holding my head in a cold shower.

Or so I'm told. I was a bit young when all this went down.