I recently read an article about a woman whose body was found in the rubble of the hurricane destruction (maybe it was an earthquake or tsunami or some other natural disaster, but I think it was hurricane). When they uncovered her, they saw something moving and they found her baby, sleeping peacefully in her mothers arms. The mother had used her body to shield the baby and while the mother had perished, the baby had survived.
I remember reading that and thinking “Wow, I hope I would do something like that. I hope I would have the presence of mind to protect my monkeys, should we ever been in a situation like this.”
I have also read other stories about mother’s adrenaline kicking in during times of extreme danger for children and women lifting entire cars off of their children. I’ve read these stories with a bit of skepticism, because, seriously? A car? But, I know how I feel about my babies and how I feel when they are in small amounts of danger. Perhaps I, too, could lift a car off of them.
So, I was able to test myself a bit, this morning, without meaning to, on where exactly I’d fall on the chart of utilizing my mother’s adrenaline, quick thinking and motherly reflex.
I didn’t sleep well last night, and so was pretty tired when everyone started moving around this morning. Tiny was calling, and so I got him, fed him, and then came downstairs to be with the rest of the monkeys.
Except I missed a few stairs on my way down and fell the rest of the way, hurtling toward the stone foyer floor, baby in my arms.
It all happened so quickly, I have no idea exactly what happened. I do know that I wasn’t making any conscious decisions and that instinct just took over.
Somehow, I managed to avoid the stone floor by twisting my body as my ankle hit the stone. I twisted toward the living room, smashing my elbow into the door frame of the living room. My arms were up, around the baby, as we fell, and Tiny’s head was nestled in the crook of my elbow.
I’m not sure exactly what else happened or what part of my body hit what, but I landed, somehow, not on the stone tile floor, but instead on the wooden living room floor, right on top of Tiny Monkey.
I lay there, pretty sure my leg was broken, although I had no idea what I hit it on, and looked down at the baby in my arms.
He smiled.
Somehow, I had created a cage with my body and kept him safe inside.
He thought it was a great adventure.
The other monkeys had come running and I had Monkey Girl get Real Man who came down and extricated Tiny from my arms and checked him out. Absolutely perfect.
Turns out nothing is broken, and I have a few bruises in places you can and can’t see, but I’m just so grateful that all that mother’s adrenaline I had read about was real and that instinct does, in fact, take over when you can’t possibly make decisions quickly enough.
Here’s the video. (Not sure why it’s sideways…can’t seem to fix that)
