Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Listen Closely


The day before yesterday I gave my Little Giant pancakes for breakfast. As you probably know by now, pancakes are pretty much my favorite food on earth. He feels the same way about them.

As we sat at the table, I had a feeling that he could choke, and felt like I should get out my CPR booklet and review what to do when a child is choking. It only took a few minutes, then the feeling left, and we went on with our day.

Then yesterday, we were enjoying an evening at the beach with our family. LG and I left the bonfire for a few minutes to go grab something from the car. There was some candy up in the front of the car, and as soon as my Little Giant saw it, he asked for some, so I gave it to him. It is a type of candy he eats often, and a favorite around our house.


As we left the car to return to the group, I picked him up and carried him in my arms, and handed him one more piece of candy. Then I heard him choking. I mean really choking. Immediately I turned him over and pounded on his back following the treatment steps for a choking infant. I gave him two back thrusts and screamed to my husband that our son was choking.

There was a shrill in my voice, that can only be described as motherly desperation. It was alarming to me to hear it in my own voice.



After four heavy back thrusts, the candy was out, and he was crying. He immediately wanted Daddy to hold him, which he did for awhile as we sat around the bonfire. After a few minutes, the seriousness of the situation began to sink in, and I wanted to hold my child close. He resisted at first, but then allowed me to hold him. And after a few minutes he said "You hurted my back Mommy."

Poor kid isn't used to being pounded on. So we talked about why I had hurt him. And how I was trying to keep him safe.

Then I held him close and said a prayer of thanks for the prompting the day before that had prepared me to save his life.

Call it Mothers Intuition, a Message from Guardian angels, or a prompting from the Holy Ghost. Call it whatever you want. But I learned an important lesson yesterday.

To Listen Closely.

Listen closely to the voice, the feeling, the little nudge that is there to help you, to warn you, or to prepare you.

Then do what it tells you to do.

Just do it.

Especially when there are little ones around.


Thank goodness, I did, and everything turned out alright. 

4 comments:

  1. That is one of my greatest fears! Glad you were aware!

    ReplyDelete
  2. That is so scary. You are such a fantastic mom and I have always admired how well you listen to the Spirit. Glad that LG is ok!

    ReplyDelete
  3. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete