Oops... lessons learned

Well, it happened. I knew it would at some point, though I hoped it wouldn't. I was trying to clip Mary Hyatt's fingernails and I pinched a part of her skin. It was horrible. Usually I try to clip them when she is asleep, but this particular night I had just gotten her out of the bath and we were getting ready for bed. She was being really relaxed and calm and her nails had gotten so long that they were scratching me, so I figured I'd give it a try. All went well with one hand. Then on the second hand, she suddenly jerked her hand right when I clipped and I must have pinched a piece of her skin. Her happy and smily face suddenly changed to a pouty frown and then she started screaming crying. I mean screaming. The kind of crying where no sound was even coming out at times. I cried with her....almost just as hard. I felt HORRIBLE. She cried for a long time too. Usually when she gets fussy, Ben will often give her to me and I am usually the one to settle her down. But this particular night, Ben was the hero. She wanted absolutely nothing to do with me, and I think she wanted as far away from me as possible. Ben got her to calm down thankfully. I still felt like the worst mama in the world.

As if that wasn't bad enough, the next day while Ben was at work I was trying to empy the dishwasher. Mary Hyatt was getting kind of fussy and had been in her bouncy seat for a while so I knew she just wanted to be held. Since I've taken on this role of motherhood, I have learned to do A LOT with just one hand while holding a baby in the other. I've even emptied the dishwasher several times before while holding her. This day, I was holding her paci in my mouth (backwards...like with the little ring in my mouth and the actual paci part facing out) and was finishing putting the stuff away. Mary Hyatt kind of flinched and almost acted like she was trying to jump out of my arms. In that instant I paniced and pulled her towards me but in the process her little head hit the hard part of the pacifier right above her eye. She cried again. Not nearly as hard or as long as she did with the fingernail clipping, but she did have a little red spot above her eye for a few minutes. I felt horrible again. Thats two times in two days that I have accidentally hurt my little girl. Lessons learned...Always wait until Mary Hyatt is asleep to cut her nails and maybe I shouldn't try to multi-task with a baby quite so much.

It was also pretty funny and ironic that right after that happened I got a text from a co-worker that said "It was so great to see you and Mary Hyatt the other day. She was so precious, and you looked like such a natural with her!" My response back was..."Thanks..but not so much of a natural these past two days!"