Poor Baby. Every time one of us tries to trim her nails, she protests and wriggles and tries to escape from what she is absolutely sure will be the end of at least one fingertip.
Since the last time I nicked her thumb, I've been way too afraid of doing it again; I've tried to bite her nails off when I remember, if she lets me.
But she keeps scratching herself here and there, and those little nicks make her look like she's been in a fight with the next door neighbour's cat or something; nail trimming just cannot be avoided for long. And so the boy has taken on the job.
But last night Baby struggled so much that a sizeable piece of skin was inadvertantly snipped from her left middle finger. Amidst the terrible screaming I thought I could hear her yelling "I bloody TOLD you so!".
The blood just would not stop dripping from her little wound. Pretty soon, there were stains all over the boy's jeans and Baby's babygro.
We took her to the E & R which, fortunately, is just around the corner from home. The nurse on duty was really sympathetic and even offered a family anecdote; her mum got the fright of her life when, as a new mother, she clipped her newborn's fingernails and they started bleeding (apparently babies' fingernails bleed when they are only a few days old).
By the time we got to see a doctor, the bleeding had stopped and Baby had woken up from a Pamol-induced nap. The skin is going to grow back in a few days - we just have to stop Baby from stuffing the plastered finger in her mouth and causing it to bleed all over the place.
Needless to say we were all very traumatised last night; this morning I've been spraying a lot of stain remover on laundry.
8 comments:
ouch! its such a catch 22; we used to wait til darth jr. fell asleep to do it, but then we feared it would wake him up, and since getting him to sleep is such a pain...well..:))
Ouch! Still it was bound to happen at some point - sounds like it's a hazard of parenting. Baby will forgive you - hell, we all forgave my parents for some of the weird things they did, so this will be no big deal!
when she runs out of fingertips the world will run out of fire
http://www.tki.org.nz/r/maori/nga_purakau_maori/mahuika_e.php
damn I wish I knew how to turn those into links...
juliabohemian: from now on I'm just going to file 'em to heck.
darth: oh, I know EXACTLY what you mean. She mostly only sleeps for 45 mins at a time (IF she goes to sleep) and the last thing I want to do then is wake her up...
skirt: I sure as hell don't remember getting my own fingertips snipped when I was a baby, so I hope my daughter doesn't remember hers either. Better not tell her about this blog.
editter: oh, there's some simple HTML to do that, but I can't remember what it is. If you go into your blog template you'll find similar code right where you've put your blog links.
Hey Editter, I just checked out the folk tale on your link. I thought pulling fingernails was a Chinese torture, not a Maori one!
HI Violet,
Do you still breastfeed? Eve has such long scratchy nails that I can only sort them out when she's breastfeeding. Either I buff or nibble them or my hubbie uses a baby nail clipper which is very quick. I find she's so obsessed with feeding that she forgets what's going on at her fingertips. I have to do one hand whilst she's on one boob and the other on the other boob...
Have you tried this??
Bethx
Our little guy was sporting a banadge for a few days not a month ago now. They flail about so much sometimes I swear it is easier bathing the dog than trimming his nalis.
beth beth beth...obviously you've forgotten (or not read) the scrillions of words I've written about how inconveniently distractible Baby is; if I even clear my throat or scratch my chin while she's breastfeeding, she stops and tries to find the source of the noise or movement.
rainypete: I've never tried bathing a dog, but I do believe you.
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