Car Scares

Does this ever happen to you?
It's happened to me a few times now, and it scares the hell out of me every time.

Here's what happens:
6:00am (maybe 5:45am) Marcie wakes up. Bright eyed. Cheery even. This morning she sang out "MOMMY!" and got right up in my face to wake me up.

6:02 am Marcie gets dressed.

6:05 am Marcie watches her brother get dressed.

6:10 am Marcie and Casey brush their teeth.

6:15 am Marcie drinks a couple of milk and snacks on dry cereal while she toddles around and gets into things. Casey gets a bowl of cereal and 30 minutes of TV (if he was good when it was time to dress and brush his teeth).

6:30 am Marcie harasses Casey and they bicker. I intervene. Casey tells Marcie to stop trying to eat his cereal already! I remind Casey he needs to eat his cereal.

6:35 am Marcie watches me make Casey's lunch and Jason's breakfast. She begs for more food because she's finished eating her dry cereal. She wants bread with peanut butter. More often than not, I don't relent because I know she's had enough dry cereal.

6:45 am The TV goes off and Marcie begins following Casey around while he plays. Marcie checks on me in the bathroom, where I'm usually showering and putting on make up at this point in the morning.

7:15 am We say good bye to Casey and to Daddy. I search for a sweatshirt or jacket to put on Marcie. I load up the car. I put Marcie in her car seat and buckle her in. I try to entice her to read a book in the backseat.

7:30am We finally pull out of the driveway to go to Grandma's house where Marcie will spend the day.

7:40am I chat with Marcie while we are at a stop light. I can see in the rear view mirror that she is occupying herself by untying her shoelaces and bending over to reach a lace and chew on it. We smile and laugh.

7:45am I look back in the rear view mirror, and Marcie is still playing with the shoelace.

7:47am I look back as we round the corner to Grandma's street and Marcie is passed out. Sometimes she's slumped sideways. Sometimes her head is tossed back. I feel sudden panic. How could she fall asleep that quickly? She didn't even look tired! IS she asleep? Did she get something and choke on it? Is she breathing? I call out to her, "Marcie! Marcie! Wake up!" Horrible thoughts run through my mind -- I try to remember how to do mouth-to-mouth as I pull into Grandma's driveway, ready to pull her out of her car seat and throw her on the grass to perform whatever life-saving technique is necessary.

7:49am I put the car in park and turn off the engine. I leap out of the car, race to the side her car seat is on, and begin tugging on the straps to undo them. I try to check her pulse with my left hand while I unbuckle the belt with my right. No luck. So I lean over her face, hoping to feel her breath on my cheek. I do. And I feel sudden relief.

7:50am I lift Marcie out of the car seat and walk her to the front door. I am so glad she is okay. Grandma reaches out for Marcie, and we quietly remove her shoes so she can nap.

But seriously-- a nap? Already? The kid hasn't been awake even two hours! She 18 months old! She goes without napping at all some days!

All this worrying sure does tucker me out sometimes.