Miracle Baby

Diary of Yale Mom

12.18.10
Miracle Babies & Nannies

I recently saw a segment on TV about a Miracle Baby! I thought to myself that all of my children are miracles. Even more, because I never had an easy pregnancy, I see all of my children as special gifts.

The Miracle Baby’s mother had left him unattended in the bathtub. By the time she returned, her baby had drowned. The baby was pronounced dead by the Emergency Medical Team who nevertheless continued to administer CPR until arriving with the baby at the hospital. Forty minutes after revival efforts began on the little boy, he started to breath. He was alive only after much effort and many prayers -- surely a true miracle! I cried as I heard the story, remembering my own near-tragedy with my younger daughter when she was four years old.

I had been rear-ended in the car while sitting at a traffic light. Even before I got home, my neck had gotten very stiff. After a few days of excruciating pain, I went to a doctor. I could not even pick up my two-year-old son to change his diaper. I had a herniated disk in my neck and so had to start physical therapy to alleviate the pain.

I also needed help to care for my children and assist me with my daily chores, so I hired a full-time helper. One day I was in the kitchen with my youngest child trying to make lunch. The helper, an elderly woman, was upstairs with my middle child giving her a bath. I heard the woman running the bath water. A few minutes later, though, she was in the kitchen opening the refrigerator. I asked her what she was doing. She told me that she had to get something to eat because she needed to take her high blood pressure medicine. I asked her where my daughter was. She said my child was in the tub. I yelled, “ARE YOU CRAZY? You cannot leave a child unattended in the bathtub! Not for even a minute!” I picked up the baby and ran upstairs. My four-year-old daughter was playing in the water-filled tub. Luckily, she was fine, but I fired the helper on the spot.

She had, after all, left my child unattended in a full tub of water. She did not even go back upstairs after I yelled at her, but continued instead to get something to eat. Her lack of concern thoroughly exasperated me. How dare she take my child’s life for granted – that same child for whom I had lain in bed for three months to ensure the best chance for a normal and healthy life! I was very, very angry.

So I gave the helper two weeks’ severance pay and escorted her to the door. During 1993 I hired and fired ten more nannies for a host of reasons, all having one common denominator: a lack of respect for the lives of my children. I can’t even begin to recount the horrors resulting from the acts that some of these women committed; but I fired them all for well-grounded reasons.

One day, I will write just about the nannies, which will require several entries and a glass of wine.

Diary of a Yale Mom