Grapes

About two weeks ago or so, I was working on a bunch of doll clothes and Julia's napmat.  Doing quite a bit of sewing.  Thought I had blogged this story, but couldn't find it so I thought I'd write it down as a reminder of how good God is.

Julia had a bunch of grapes in a bowl.  Yes, whole grapes.  I had never cut them because she has never had issues chewing them and chews very thoroughly.  Never thought about it being an issue which was not smart on my part.

While I was sewing, the girls were playing in the room and watching Dora or Boz.  Julia went downstairs to get her grapes.  Then carried the small bowl of them upstairs and sat down right next to me while she ate.

I finished a seam and heard a cough and she was standing up.  Thankfully I could hear her crying and hear some air moving in and out of her body so I knew she had a small amount of air with which to breathe.  I really didn't think much and just went into action mode.

First thing I did was to pick her body up and lean her forward.  Thrusting several times to hopefully dislodge the grape.  I heard a small difference and she started crying.  I started praying that she would cry and kept asking God "Please let her cry!"  because I knew if she was crying, she was breathing.

It wouldn't come out and so after a few seconds I decided to do a sweep of her mouth to see if I could feel anything.  Sure enough I felt the full grape - unchewed and whole - in the back of her mouth.  In the one mouth sweep I could feel where the back of the grape was and knew that if I could pop it forward and out, then I could get it out and help her be fine.  I did it quite gently so I wouldn't push it in the first time.  The second time I knew that I had to get it out.

I put my finger to the inside of her left cheek and bent it around back and popped that grape out with good force.  Allowed it to soar in the air and land a ways from where we were.  Julia then started crying and I just held her for the longest time.  I hadn't really thought through what had happened and didn't really think through what could have been until it was over.  What if she had eaten the grapes downstairs instead of coming up?  What if she hadn't been sitting near us?  What if I had pushed the grape further down instead of popping it out?

I can only say Thank You God!  to my Creator and Savior for helping my little Julia be able to breathe and live.

The rest of the day Julia would say "Dat really huht! (that really hurt)  Mommy get it out!"  I haven't been able to give her grapes since as I've been afraid of her choking even when they are cut.

Turns out that she was opening her mouth wide and popping the food in.  Caught her doing it with another food and realized that was what had most likely happened.  Madi and Riley were in the room and thankfully I was able to stay very calm and just act.  They were already quite scared and they were incredibly sweet to her after it happened.


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