Tonight I was responsible (for 4 hours) for the care of my friend Aurelia’s baby, who is 15 months old. He was asleep when she left, but woke up after 25 minutes. At first he was extremely mad at me and when I tried to lay down to soothe and coax him back to sleep, he decided he’d rather be really, really far away--at the end of the bed. He used the entirety of his little baby strength to propel himself as far away from me as possible. Then, while sitting on his bottom, he sort of slumped over with his face in bedding. He cried off and on, periodically rearing up to let them out. After about 10 minutes, he was silent, but in a terribly uncomfortable position.
I left to get some things from my place of employment, but called my house manager about an hour later to see how the baby was doing. Incredibly, he was still asleep! I began to worry that maybe he had somehow perished due to his position at the end of the bed. My errand boy went to check on him and informed me that he appeared to still be alive. I wasn’t entirely convinced, so I drove home and then crept into the room and quietly leaned my ear towards his head to make sure I could hear breathing. I was relieved that he hadn’t passed, and continued tending to my affairs. When he still wasn’t awake after 3.5 hours, I again went in to check for breathing. “But wait,” I thought, “what if he’s in a coma?”. I’m not a doctor, so I don’t know how taking a nap might trigger a coma or death, but in the fragile state of being entrusted with the life of a helpless child, it seemed entirely possible. I debated about whether or not I should try to wake him up or call his mother, and decided to wait for her to get home on the off chance that he was perfectly fine.
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