The roller coaster parenting day

Today started off uneventful. I wanted to get Sofia's diapers hung out, return a video and get a swim diaper for Sofia. The exciting life I lead. 1 out of 3 ain't bad, right?

The 12:30 feeding went quickly enough that these things all seemed possible. I laid her in her crib and wound up her mobile, which she loves. Went out to the kitchen to make a sandwich, come back to check and she's asleep!! She put herself to sleep in her crib. Doesn't sound like a big deal, except this fact. We usually put her in the crib when we need to wake her up. If she's not crying about being in there, she's wide awake staring at and "talking" to her mobile. I text Steve the news and figure she'll wake up any minute. Nope! Finally I turn on a noise machine hoping it will help her not panic when she wakes up and try and nap too. Of course all the things that could go wrong run through my head, but eventually I fall asleep. A full 40 minutes elapse since she went to sleep before she wakes up yelling. Wow! Maybe there's hope that she won't have to co-sleep until she's 18.

I even still have 30 minutes to get her laundry hung out. However, fate had other plans. I had intended to put her in the Kelty front carrier that Steve's sister handed down. Instead, I nearly swore off carriers.

Sofia's finally big enough that she doesn't get smothered in the carrier. We picked strawberries with it last week and just a few days ago took her on the dog walk in it. Well today, I could not get her situated in it. After a while of fumbling, she starts crying, so I take her out quickly and put her on the changing table and she starts SCREAMING. Which is out of character for her. I get the carrier off and pick her up and she's still screaming bloody murder. At this point I'm convinced I must have broken her leg or something. Maybe I should give her Tylenol. I am such a bad parent. The leg looks funny. Like maybe it's turned in at a funny angle, and it definitely looks like it's bruised. I'm trying to palpate it and see where I should put ice on it. I'm thinking what a horrible trip to the ER this will be and theres's no way I can put her into her car seat with a broken leg. I splash a little cold water on it (not quite ice, but...) I manage to get her into a comfortable cradle hold and go to the rocking chair. She starts settling down, but then she shifts and fusses again. She must be in pain still. Then she settles back down. Within a few minutes, she's asleep. As she sleeps I carefully palpate every part of her legs and hip. Nothing seems to hurt enough to wake her up. There's one little mark that seems to be a scratch, but it doesn't hurt her enough when I touch it to wake her.As I rock her and watch her sleep, I am almost in tears thinking about what I have done, and feeling exactly what all those parents who have had their kid tumble off of things or drop them accidentally must feel like. And happy that she is sleeping peacefully and pain free.

She sleeps a 1/2 hour until her feeding, wakes up, eats, everything is fine. Maybe I have a little drama queen on my hands? There seems to be no lasting effect from whatever it was that set her off.
Wondering if she was mentally scarred for life from this, and still needing to get her diapers hung out, I try again. This time, I lay the carrier wide open in the crib and ever so carefully load her in. She doesn't seem to have any memory of the earlier trauma (whew). I hang out her little diapers, she sleeps some more.
What a day.