I met a new facet of my personality yesterday: the instinctive
primordial brain that makes the preservation of my offspring my
absolute, numero uno priority.
I was coming down our hardwood stairs, carrying a sleeping Nathaniel in
the crook of my left arm. As I got towards the bottom, I slipped.
My primordial brain immediately screamed, "PROTECT THE BABY! PROTECT
THE BABY!" In response, my left arm instantly tightened up, pulling
him in close to my chest. My right arm flew across my body, stabilizing
him from the other side.
Sadly for my body, this left no arms free to break my fall. I remember
thinking that it was really going to hurt, but I also remember knowing
that I had no choice.
And then I hit the stairs. As I feared, it did hurt. My derriere is now
unattractively colored and my knee is moderately tweaked. However,
Nathaniel didn't even wake up.
The instinct to PROTECT THE BABY is remarkably powerful. I've never
fallen before and not instinctively tried to break my fall or otherwise
preserve my body, but this time, my own health was clearly way down on
the priority list.
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4 comments:
Bizarre how that happens, isn't it? I still have that feeling toward my children today, and they're grown! It is this same instinct, I suspect, that causes you to automatically reach out to hold a grown child in the seat next to you when you find yourself having to brake suddenly. I'm sorry you're hurt, though.
My mother still does that to me and I'm 20! If we're in the car and she has to brake suddenly for any reason (happens a lot in Colombo and Dhaka) she sticks out her left arm (all the cars are right hand drive) to stop me going forward - Like a secondary seatbelt.
Get well soon. Impressive, as always--not only do you have normal instincts, they deployed in a manner to keep nathaniel from waking up? You're a rock star.
Thanks, everybody. I'm feeling much better. The bruise is receding and I don't feel any pain in my knee any more.
I suspect I will also be the parent who flings her arm across her kid at stoplights..
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