I had been complaining for about a week, ok a little more, that we needed to cut her nails, as they are getting to be long ( it's been about 2-3 weeks since they were last cut by Uncle Tony) and she had scratched herself a little below her left eye. It's healing nicely, but there were 2 little scabs. That's when I knew we needed to cut.
But have you ever seen baby nails? Their fingers are so tiny and the nails to tender. My mom and Regina cut her nails during the first 3 weeks. And then Uncle Tony and Aunt Sally gave me a lesson on how to cut her nails. But the prospect of me doing it, well I find it to be intimidating. The room for error, the room to snip her finger, cut her skin, well it felt high. It's recommended the nails be cut when the baby is asleep, as there is less jerking and moving of the hands. Which means the cutter can have more room for accuracy.
Even with Aunt Sally's instructions (hold back the skin behind the nail so you can get a better hold of the fingernail and then snip), I was still incredibly nervous. What if I missed and clipped off a part of her skin? What if I made her bleed? I hate squirting the saline nasal spray in her nose, seeing her jerk, react, and then scream and wail. And this is just saline. What if I actually made her bleed? I saw how she (and let's face it, I ) reacted to when she had her blood drawn, it would not be good on either part. So I kept putting it off. And off. And off. I said to myself, well, my mom is coming on the 12th, I can just wait until then.
But she woke up this morning, with two scratches on her right check, just little welts, no scabs this time, so we knew it was time. I pulled out the white nail clippers, with the 'Safety 1st' logo on it, and just left it on the island. I did my part - I pulled them out! But I couldn't bring myself to clip her nails.
Well, Mark could. He was brave! We read that some parents bite their child's nails, as a way to cut. We knew we weren't going to opt for that one. And I couldn't put mittens on her hands, it's September in New Orleans. So he went in.
Started with the ring finger on the right hand. Got the nail, snipped it right off. But then she woke up. And wanted to feed again. So she latched on, ate for a minute or two, and then dozed off. So went in, well she jerked again and awoke. He managed to clip another nail. And she was awake, But she was cooperating so he continued. He went to clip her right pointer finger, but she moved, and he moved the clipper, and nipped her skin. She cried. She bled. And we both freaked a little bit. Luckily we had a burp cloth, so we put it over the bleeding finger. I told Mark to get the Neosporin. But problem was we couldn't remember where we last put it. I thought it might be in the downstairs diaper/clothes basket. Nope. Then I told him to look for it upstairs, in her bathroom closet, to see if it was with the Mylicon Gas Drops and Children's Tylenol ( a logical place). Nope. Then he checked the diaper bag. Nope. So he checked our bathroom, and then came back with the tube.
We smeared it over the wound (which in the beginning looked a lot worse, she, by now, had forgotten about it). And I had moved onto the next worry. What if she ate the Neosporin? She has been putting her fingers into her mouth more and more.
She recovered from her finger. But we stopped cutting her nails. Will have to work our way back to it. But mad props, like I said, he cut her nails and he's the brave one!
No comments:
Post a Comment