I've dropped my baby onto the hardfloor face first.

[Sashasays]

I am traumatized. She's acting normal & only cried once but I am taking her to the hospital now to have her checked. I feel so stupid I can't stop crying, she fell of the sofa quite a far distance. I'm such a bad mum

Please don't worry, You are taking her to the right place if there is any damage but there almost certainly won;t be.

When DS1 was about a 2years old I was 7 months pregnant with DD and after I picked him up from the childminder I was carrying him to the car. Just as I reached the car I tripped over a hole in the pavement and dropped him - on to the road! I was hysterical! CM came out to check on him, I rang H and he left a meeting to drive us to the hospital. What freaked me out was that after DS stopped crying he fell asleep and I couldn't wake him! The scariest drive of my life! At the hospital they checked him and confirmed he was fine but made a huge fuss over the fact I was pregnant and had strained my back twisting to pick him up.

Fingers crossed for your LO xxx

Aha! Read your update. See? !!

By the way if THAT makes you a bad mum I suspect there aren't that many 'good' ones !

I dropped my nephew off my lap, head first onto a wooden floor when he was a baby...I was mortified & extremely worried, he was totally fine and is a very well & healthy teenager now, try not to worry

Aw glad all is ok OP. Welcome to the club now you are truly a parent, haha! I know you've had heaps by now but here's mine: put 3 week old DD on the sofa, asleep, for maybe 30 seconds while I boiled the kettle/had a wee/whatever. I could hear strangely muffled crying - she had rolled off the sofa and right underneath it - I had to fish her out! I felt terrible, she was absolutely fine and never rolled again until about 7mo. I still have no idea how she managed it that one time!
DC2 rolled off our (very high) bed at 4 months. Then he learnt to pull to stand at barely 6 months, but he couldn't get down - so he'd just let go and topple backwards like a felled tree. We caught him most of the time...but not every time
Both kids are just fine and very lovely. No lasting damage! It honestly, genuinely happens to us all.

Lovely news on an otherwise rather shit day.

Oh trust me, we have all had accidents with our kids. I did the same when DS was a baby, don't be too harsh on yourself

Like I said..DS fell not once but twice. Once at 8 weeks and again at six months. ...apparently I don't learn.
I was the local health visitor too!
My colleagues used to shake their heads and tut tut at me when I went to clinic.

You are human.

Your not a bad mum at all lovely. Sure she's fine but good that your getting her checked. If you can treat yourself to some chocolate or cake, you'll feel better.

My Nana fell asleep feeding once, she woke up and couldn't find him. He was down the side of the bed!

She really is the best and we all as a family think she's amazing, she obviously just fell asleep exhausted and accidents happen.

Last year while reading a book at the park and silently judging the helicopter parents my 4 year old dc fell off the top of the play equipment. And smacked his head on the metal bit going down.

He's a bit of an exaggerator so not having seen it I assumed he'd just taken a little bump, luckily another parent (who had been watching their child) saw and ran over to tell me it was a bad fall and that's when I noticed the massive gash on the back of his head. Ambulance took us to A&E
That's shit parenting. But seriously you just spend the next 18 years (probably longer) with your heart in your mouth waiting for them to do something fucking stupid.

OP ask your GP to refer you for some CBT. Often you can do it from home- either by telephone or online- and so be seen quicker and it's brilliant for anxiety.

My sister works on a maternity ward. She says 1 or 2 newborn babies a week fall off the bed. That's why they say to do changes in the cot. Occasionally they have to go to a and e but they are OK.

Reading that made me go a bit funny!

Hope you're both okay, @Sashasays if it's any comfort at all I work alongside a busy A&E department in a big hospital and it's not that uncommon! These things happen x

He's fine now - 99th percentile, shouty, giggly, curious about EVERYTHING! And still sometimes the anxiety nearly drags me under. I really do know how it feels. So I know with certainty that it isn't possible to be completely careful all the time. And it wouldn't be good for them if you were - children learn what is and isn't safe and possible through the little knocks and scrapes and bumps they get as they grow. If you insulated them from all risk as a baby and toddler they would never be safe out in the real world as they wouldn't be able to judge risk for themselves. I don't think I mentioned before but my little one also has a heart condition. He will still run, play, and do anything he wants to do. Yes, I will probably hover anxiously the entire time, but I won't let my anxiety stand in his way, and you can't either.

I know Fliptophead, I didn't intend it to sound blasé or flippant. It's horrible. Just pointing out that babies are tougher than they look.

But please if you know anyone pregnant please remind them don't put babies on the bed, and put the barriers up if you're feeding in bed.

I have three children. They are my life. There is nothing in this world that means more to me than those beautiful babies that my husband and I made. I keep them well fed. I keep them healthy. I keep them safe.

Have I ever dropped one? Have they ever fallen off settees, beds or chairs? Have they managed to find a perfect for choking small item that I or husband have accidentally left around?

Of course they bloomin' have! Honestly, I sometimes wonder how they survived infancy. Those little buggers are quick and sneaky once they get to 6 months or so. And before that, those little buggers are wriggly and slippy.

You're doing fine OP. I would only be concerned if it DIDN'T bother you.

Oh and just to add, I was too scared to give my DS a bath until he was nearly 4 weeks in case he was so slippery I dropped him....

Thank you everyone. She is completely fine, but wakes up every time I put her in her cot. I'm exhausted on the other hand, feeling quite emotionally weak today.

Glad she's fine Sasha, yes it's scary when things like this happen. Babies are amazing though as they do seem very resilient to this kind of thing.

Take it easy today and just give yourself a pat on the back for doing all the right things yesterday after the fall. That's what a good parent does...react responsibly to accidents.

See this mark on DS's nose? That's where DH managed to somehow drop a baby bottle on him and cut the bridge of his nose(typically on the morning of the day we had him booked in with a photographer) He was maybe 2 Months old

We've also walked him into door frames when he was still tiny. He fell out of his booster seat that was strapped to a kitchen chair and fell onto the tile floor last week and fell down the stairs the week before that.
Also misjudged a step at nursery and sprained his ankle and reverted back to crawling everywhere for a few days.

He's 2 now, and we've learnt that he's quite bouncy.
Accidents happen, you didn't do it on purpose, and I'm pretty sure it won't be the last time. Glad she's ok

MsPringles he was beautiful. I guess accidents do happen, but doesn't stop the guilt you feel. I've been showering her with ultimated kisses.

I have a story to beat all of them

First baby, utterly utterly exhausted, fell asleep with her on top of me in bed. Was having an awful nightmare being attacked in my sleep and I bit the top of her head in my sleep

She was utterly fine, cried and I woke up straight away. I felt awful for about 6 mths afterwards

Georgie oh no, that made me laugh a lil. Poor baby, she must have had such a fright !!

Georgie
You win this thread

When ds1 was at the just-crawling stage, I left him downstairs whilst I nipped upstairs for a wee. He was in the dining room which was open plan to the kitchen, but everything was babyproofed, so I thought it would be OK.

From the bathroom, I heard a baby crying outside - Oh, thought I, the neighbour's must have a visitor with a baby - and then I thought nothing more of it, and ignored the wailing while I finished my wee and washed my hands.

When I got downstairs, I found ds1 wedged halfway through the cat flap. He'd tried to go out with both arms over his head - as if he was diving - and had got totally stuck, unable to reach anything to pull himself out with his arms or push himself out with his feet!

The only way I could get him out was to open th back door (very carefully so I didn't smack his head off the wall) and essentially deliver him into the garden!

When he hit the tantrum stage, during one truly awful screaming fit, I was on the phone to dh when ds1 stopped crying. When I went to see why, he was at the kitchen bin, eating tortilla chips dh had thrown away the night before.

I looked at him and I knew, just knew, that if I took him away from his yummy snack, he'd start screaming again, and I couldn't face it - so I let him carry on eating until he got bored and went to play with his toys!!. I did then move the bin to somewhere more secure.

Ds1 is now nearly 24, and has a degree in law and a full time job, so I can't have done him too much harm.

We all make mistakes as parents - we are human.