I was going to post about a couple of things, but I can only remember one of them! Mateo nursed off to sleep last night for the first time in several days and I sat holding him for quite awhile, just enjoying the moment. After he’d been asleep for five minutes or so, he stirred around and started talking in his sleep! He used the same sounds he makes during the day. He said “gah-nnn, gah-nnn, gah-nnn” several times (a sound you can really only replicate if you have no teeth, we’ve discovered) and then smiled to himself in his sleep. It was so cute and funny.
In addition to the slow deterioration of our dryer itself, we’ve recently begun to learn about the pitfalls of having gas appliances. As with many things in our house, the previous owners did a lot of “improvements” themselves on the cheap. Everything looks gorgeous from the outside but when you look just under the surface, you realize that everything is held together by imperfect connections and silicone sealing tape.
As it turns out, our dryer’s gas connection was one of those bad connections. Somehow, it took us almost three years of living in this house to realize that the reason the laundry room sometimes smells like gas is not just because gas appliances smell like gas (which I had been telling myself). No. It’s because the connection between the dryer and the gas hose is not sealed right. The fact that this has been happening for so long is enough to make me feel very frustrated for the millionth time at the people from whom we bought the house, but that it has been happening RIGHT NEXT TO MATEO’S ROOM for almost nine months makes me feel nearly apoplectic.
Dr. Google tells me that natural gas leaks aren’t dangerous for breathing unless they are very, very severe. And, our leak must be small because it has only smelled like gas in there once every couple of weeks (which is why we never investigated further)…but still, I feel like the world’s worst parent for not realizing this until now. And, so thankful that we’re all okay and that Mateo spent hardly any time at all in his room until the last month or so. He slept with us for most of the first seven months and on the other side of his room from the laundry room for all but a few nights even when he did start sleeping there.
We figured out how to turn the gas off at the connection and have mostly kept it off unless the dryer’s actually been in use. And, we are relieved and excited that our new dryer will be here (and the connection fixed) the day after we get home.
Still, I’m having a really hard time letting go of this. I feel like it’s my job to protect Mateo and keep him safe and that I fell down on the job in a bad way. I guess we just have to keep learning and trying to do our best and hopefully that will be good enough.
2 comments:
That's so frustrating! :( I know what you mean, though... We are constantly finding little things in our house that were either not done very well to begin with or were shoddily repaired (the sprinklers come to mind right now-- I have been battling with them for months!). I'm sure Mateo is just fine, though. You are not a bad parent!! This could have happened to anyone!
Please don't beat yourself up any longer! You ARE protecting him! Once you discovered the problem you took steps to fix it. I'm not a doctor, but if the gas had done anything to Mateo you would know. He'd be sick or lethargic or non-responsive. From what I read and see on the blog he's a very alert, smart, and developly advanced baby.
Here's a strategy I use to feel better about stuff like this that I can't go back and change (I just found out for example that some of the grass clippings we used in our beautiful organic garden were from our neighbor's herbicide treated grass). I think back to my childhood and remember some of the awful things I (and probably we) were exposed to and ate in the 80's. Somehow we all survived. All we can do is our best and change the things that we can when we discover them.
Mateo is lucky to have two very loving, smart and savvy mommies.
Post a Comment