A Seriously Scary Situation

This morning, Sophie and I joined our friends at the Aquarium at the Levee. Sophie loved seeing all of the sea creatures and enjoyed looking at each of the exhibits. She especially loved spending time with her friend, Lucy. It always warms my heart to see the two of them together.

Sophie wanted me to sit next to her...right in some water.

Happier times. Little did we know about the stressful situation we were about to be put through.

This 'bubble' scared Sophie a little. She didn't like that she couldn't reach out and touch the end right away. I tried to put her in there further so she could feel it, but she clung to me instead. 

After we parted ways with our friends, Sophie and I were going to go to Barnes and Nobles. I became distracted by a phone call though, so we just did a quick walk around outside instead. I knew Sophie was getting tired, so I decided we should grab some lunch to go from Tom + Chee. Had I known the trouble that we would get into later, we would have dined in.

When we got to my car in the underground parking garage, I remembered that the car next to me was angled toward my car (and mine a little toward their car), which made it difficult to get Sophie out of her car seat. Not wanting to hit their car with my door, we entered my car from the other door (driver side). When we climbed in, I figured that we should go ahead and eat our lunch in the back seat. I knew Sophie would fall asleep on the way home, so I wanted her to go ahead and eat so she wouldn't have a super late lunch. (Again, we should have just dined in at Tom + Chee. Stupid me.) So, we ate our sandwich and drank our lemonade in the back. Sophie started playing around with my keys (a favorite toy to her) when she finished eating. I threw them in the front seat to keep them out of her reach.

Once lunch was finished, I buckled her into her car seat, made sure she had her blanket and pacifier and then got out of the car. I shut the door so that I could get to the driver's door. I pulled on the handle and realized that it was locked. I sighed, figuring that Sophie must have locked the doors when she was playing with my keys. I tried to get into the back seat door that I just closed. Nope, that was locked, too. So were all of the other doors. My daughter was locked in the car! I circled the car a few more times, trying each door as if they would magically unlock. Then I tried banging one of the windows with the palm of my hand. I forgot that I am not the Incredible Hulk and couldn't bust a window with my hand. That didn't work. I started to panic. Sophie was just watching me from her seat, no panic from her. As I circled the car a few more times, I started to run through a list in my head of what to do:
#1- Is there anyone who can help nearby? There were no Levee workers around to ask for help and I was NOT going to leave my kid to find someone.
#2 - I could call AAA. I didn't have the number (nor did I want to waste time looking it up). Plus, it would probably take them an hour to get there.
#3 - I could call my mom and ask her to bring me a spare key. With all of the construction that is going on in our area, it would  have probably also taken her an hour to get to us.
#4 - Call the Levee and have someone come down to help us. I didn't have a number to call and didn't want to waste time looking it up.
#5 - Call 911. Duh. Of course that is what I should do. I should have called them in the first place. At least I ruled all of those other choices out in less than a minute.

I pulled out my cell phone and called 911. I've never done that before. That scared me even more. When the  dispatcher answered, she told me that she was in Cincinnati and would have to transfer me to Newport (ack!  Why couldn't all that fancy phone technology send me to the correct dispatch center? And why didn't the Cincinnati dispatcher know what county Newport is in and have to ask me? It is just across the river and it is a decent sized city.) It only took about 30 seconds to get transferred to the correct dispatch center, but it was 30 seconds of agony (and enough time to start falling apart)When I finally talked to the dispatcher, he quickly took my information and told me that help would be there quickly. (I asked him to just send down a Levee worker to smash my window and he told me no.) Sure enough, three minutes later (as I was on the phone with Joe, letting him know what happened) I was joined by a police officer and two Levee workers. Not being alone helped to calm me down a little. Three minutes after that another police officer came. He told me that a locksmith was on the way. (Interesting fact - My brother-in-law, Sophie's Godfather, is a dispatcher at the center that I called. I didn't talk to him on the phone, but it was him who called Newport police and the locksmith.) Sophie was still sitting peacefully in her car seat, looking out at all of us who were outside peeping in on her. (This surprised me, as normally she hates being in her car seat.) As we waited, I kept telling myself (and the others because talking aloud helped me not go completely crazy) that she was fine and would be fine. I ran through the list of reasons: she had a decent amount to drink when we had lunch in the car so I knew she was hydrated; the car was underground and not in the sun; even though the car was a little stuffy, it wasn't hot and I had aired it out while we ate lunch; help was on the way and she would be out in no time.

The locksmith arrived about 10 minutes later. It took him a few minutes to work his magic (He had a hard time pushing the button in my car to unlock the doors. He tried it both ways but it wasn't wanting to unlock for him. He had me over by the door so I could tell him which direction to push the button to unlock the door, but in my panicked state I had no idea. Some help I am.), but he finally got my door unlocked. I started crying again (tears of relief) and rushed over to open Sophie's door. She was a little sweaty (partially because of her super warm blanket that she has been attached to lately, and partially from the stuffiness of the car), but otherwise she was fine. She immediately held her arms out and demanded to get out of the car. I held her in my arms, bid farewell to all of our helpers/saviors, and then sobbed. She kept wiping at the tears on my face and saying, "No cry. Okay." I tried covering my face with my free hand so she didn't have to see my cry, but she kept pushing my hand away and repeating, "Okay." God, what a remarkable kid I have. She was locked in a car and instead of her crying hysterically, she comforts me!

When I calmed down a little, I strapped her back into her car seat (I placed the keys on the roof of my car while I was doing this so there was no possible way I could lock them in again), gave her some water (she refused to drink it, so I left it for her) got into the car, sent Joe a text to say that we were okay, and drove home. She fell asleep during the ride.

When we got home, I tried laying her down in her crib to sleep some more. She was awake by then though and didn't want to be alone in bed. I don't blame her. We rocked in her chair for a few minutes, her head on my shoulder, before she slithered off my lap and wanted to play. Sophie was happy as could be, playing, listening to stories, snacking, drinking milk, and eating popsicles. I would ask her if she was okay and she would give me this look (it might be my imagination, but it seemed like an exasperated one) and tell me, "Okay." She really was fine. I on the other hand was still shaking, even two hours later. Still, she wouldn't let me out of her sight (and vice versa). We needed to be right by each other at all times. Finally around 3:30, we both fell asleep on the couch. She slept curled up on my lap, something she only does when she is sick. We ended up sleeping there for two and a half hours.

I keep playing the whole situation over in my head. It is a horrible nightmare come true. Still, there are so many things that I am thankful for. #1 - The whole situation only lasted 20 minutes. #2 - We were in an underground parking garage instead of outside in the heat. #3 - We were parked on level P1, so I was close enough to ground level where I still had a phone signal. I probably wouldn't have been so lucky if we were another level down. (And thank goodness I am with Verizon now. I never had any luck with getting a signal in that garage with T-Mobile.) #4 - We had just finished eating and drinking, so those basic needs of Sophie's were met. #5 - Everyone responded to the situation very quickly.  Again, it only lasted 20 minutes. That is pretty darn quick if you ask me. #6 - My car wasn't hot. #7 - I had my cell phone in my pocket. Some days I have it in the diaper bag (which was also locked in the car). I remember while we were eating in the car that I felt myself sitting on it. I contemplated taking it out and throwing it in the front seat with the keys, but decided against it. # 8 - Sophie wasn't scared and crying and didn't seem to know what was going on. She only realized something was wrong when she saw me crying. #9 - Sophie is okay. I know that God was really looking out for Sophie today. I am so, so thankful.

I am so angry at myself. Still, I am grateful that Sophie is okay and didn't seem to know that anything was really wrong. I love that little girl so much. I don't think I will ever be able to forget this situation.

Happy as can be at home.

Not a care in the world.

We were pretty much attached to the hip when we got home.