Okay. It's now been one year since the event, or as I like to call it: "my worst Mama moment ever". I am hoping the statute of limitations has expired and I won't be charged. Trust me, I've punished myself enough.
When Rachael was four weeks old I went back to work. I had a meeting close to Ma and Big Daddy's house. Ryan wasn't able to make the trip with me and Big Daddy was tied up in other meetings, so my dear brother volunteered to watch David at his office for the few hours I would be gone. Rachael went with me to the meeting because I was exclusively breastfeeding and even at that young age she just wanted to be in the Moby wrap up against her Mama. Because of the nature of my job, my Mom [Ma] attended the meeting with me as an extra set of ears.
Our first stop was to Rich's office to drop off David and I tried not to cry. At that time I wasn't used to leaving him. As we pulled into the parking lot of our second destination- the meeting place [a few minutes late as I recall], we saw one of the men we were scheduled to meet standing by the front door on his cell phone. When I saw him I felt terrible. Because we were late I thought he was looking for us and doubting we were coming. I parked the car as fast as I could and my Mom and I jumped out of the car. She threw on her coat and I tied the Moby as fast as I could. We waved to the man and he made his way over to greet us. My car automatically locks all the doors when put in gear so Rachael's door, which is behind the passenger's seat, was locked when we arrived. In one hurried motion, as I was closing my car door to head around to Rachael's side, I reached down to hit the unlock button. My Mom and I closed our doors simultaneously. Then she went to open Rachael's door and it was locked.
Oh. My. Goodness.
Just then the man [Austin] arrived to welcome us. I then had to explain to him that our meeting would be delayed even more now because I had locked my four week old baby in the car!! Thankfully, Rachael was at the age where she slept the vast majority of the time [unless it was 3am, of course], so she was snoozing away. I was also thankful for the cool Fall weather. There was no worry about her getting overheated. There was no concern about her getting hungry anytime soon since I had fed her just before we left. I was also grateful for the fact that David, 18 months old at the time, wasn't in the car.
Austin was kind enough to call a locksmith who directed him to call 911 immediately because there was a child involved. Good, that made me feel even worse. He called 911 for us and passed the phone to me because they needed to talk with the mother of the child involved. I felt like such a delinquent Mama as I told her the story and was terrified of being charged as a criminal. As I was still talking to the dispatcher I could hear the sirens in the distance. Really? Sirens? Is that really necessary? I had told her that Rachael wasn't in distress, but still they were coming with sirens blaring. Or maybe it was the cops coming for me...
The fire truck arrived. The big one with the ladder and everything. Then right behind that was a smaller rescue truck. The whole fire station! Great. They peaked in at Rachael then looked at me with the Moby wrap ready and waiting. "You appear to be missing someone in that thing", one said to me. I wasn't in the mood for joking. I just wanted my baby out of the car NOW. At this point the sound of the sirens and the sight of the fire truck had attracted the attention of ALL the other workers in the building. Some of the women came over to console me. Many had similar stories of locking their children in the their cars. It seems like this would comfort me, but it didn't. I felt so stressed, anxious, and embarrassed as I waited for the firemen to figure out how they were going to break into my car to rescue my baby, who had no idea she needed rescuing.
Finally Rachael and I were reunited and the meeting got underway but not before we took a picture with the wonderful men who came to our rescue.
Oh. My. Goodness.
Just then the man [Austin] arrived to welcome us. I then had to explain to him that our meeting would be delayed even more now because I had locked my four week old baby in the car!! Thankfully, Rachael was at the age where she slept the vast majority of the time [unless it was 3am, of course], so she was snoozing away. I was also thankful for the cool Fall weather. There was no worry about her getting overheated. There was no concern about her getting hungry anytime soon since I had fed her just before we left. I was also grateful for the fact that David, 18 months old at the time, wasn't in the car.
Austin was kind enough to call a locksmith who directed him to call 911 immediately because there was a child involved. Good, that made me feel even worse. He called 911 for us and passed the phone to me because they needed to talk with the mother of the child involved. I felt like such a delinquent Mama as I told her the story and was terrified of being charged as a criminal. As I was still talking to the dispatcher I could hear the sirens in the distance. Really? Sirens? Is that really necessary? I had told her that Rachael wasn't in distress, but still they were coming with sirens blaring. Or maybe it was the cops coming for me...
The fire truck arrived. The big one with the ladder and everything. Then right behind that was a smaller rescue truck. The whole fire station! Great. They peaked in at Rachael then looked at me with the Moby wrap ready and waiting. "You appear to be missing someone in that thing", one said to me. I wasn't in the mood for joking. I just wanted my baby out of the car NOW. At this point the sound of the sirens and the sight of the fire truck had attracted the attention of ALL the other workers in the building. Some of the women came over to console me. Many had similar stories of locking their children in the their cars. It seems like this would comfort me, but it didn't. I felt so stressed, anxious, and embarrassed as I waited for the firemen to figure out how they were going to break into my car to rescue my baby, who had no idea she needed rescuing.
Finally Rachael and I were reunited and the meeting got underway but not before we took a picture with the wonderful men who came to our rescue.
2 comments:
How have I never heard this story? And how cute is it that you got a picture with your rescuers! I'm so glad your mom was with you, she was probably a big help for you. So, how did they actually break into your car??
The story is not as distressing as we felt that day over a year ago!! Whew!
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