Confessions of a Teenaged Mother: Things that Go Bump in the Night

I became a mother at the ripe old age of seventeen. I didn't know what I was doing. I was just a kid on top of just learning the ropes of motherhood like every new mother has to do. You worry, you go through several rounds of trial and error, you win, you lose, you mess up, and you start over.

But sometimes - you fall asleep.

Late one night I was awoken to the cries of my newborn daughter. She was in the bed with me so I heard her easily. We hadn't been in bed too long before we were both out cold. I had put a bottle on the nightstand just in case.

Just because I heard her easily doesn't mean I wanted to get up. But I did - granted, not all the way. Actually, I sat up cross-legged in the middle of my bed, laid her across my lap with her head elevated so she wouldn't choke on her milk, and proceeded to feed her her bottle. I don't know how long I sat there in this position....or when I drifted off to sleep.

Yes, I fell asleep.

And it wasn't my maternal radar that woke me up. It was the sound of my daughter landing on the floor with a thud on the floor and her muffled cries that stirred me. Of course, I sprang off the bed to rescue her - not thinking I could have stepped on her because the room was dark and I was half asleep. After I picked her up, I examined her to make sure she had all her parts, that nothing was seeping from any orifice, and that no lumps or bumps had appeared.

She looked at me and gave the most disgusted sigh, as if to say, "Gah - of all the wombs in the world, this is where I end up"...and she promptly went back to sleep.

In her crib.

That she couldn't fall out of.

She's 15 now and, of course, blames this very incident for her not being taller than her 4ft and 11in.