Do something

Take away from the infant CPR class we just took: Do something, it's better than nothing. And if you start, don't stop.

Though it certainly wasn't necessary for the class to be three hours long, it was certainly worth the time spent to leave felling confident that I could perform CPR if needed and that I will be able to handle the moment when the nugget starts to choke on whatever little thing he his secretly and stealthily gotten into his mouth. I am grateful that with little need for persuasion my husband joined and we left together, feeling mostly prepared.

So besides learning that it is better to do something than nothing at all and liking the idea to keep littlenuggets out of the kitchen when someone is cooking, we learned one EXTREMELY interesting and potentially life saving fact: in California, 911 calls made on a cell phone are forwarded to the CHP (California Highway Patrol). Funny, you should ask, why on earth is that?

Well, what we learned is that 911 is basically the first ever forwarding service - you call and it then directs you to the appropriate emergency dispatch center based on your location. From a landline, this is easy and your address is immediately available to the dispatch operator. However, your cell phone is a whole new ball of wax. And since early in the days of the cell phone, most 911 calls were coming from motorists on the highway, a decision was made to route the calls to the CHP - as they would be able to respond the fastest. Well, it seems we are a bit slow in upgrading our technologies - 911 calls made from a cell phone, still go to the CHP.

This is why, you may be on hold or even get a busy signal if you try to call 911. Can you imagine, your child is not breathing and you get a busy signal?

So here is what you do:
1. Keep your landline.
2. Program your local dispatch # into your cell phone. The one exemption to this is vortex's like UCSF, the Presidio and SF City College have their own emergency dispatch, so if you spend a lot of time in these areas, add their dispatch numbers as well. So if you live in San Francisco, get out your cell phone and ADD:

EMERGENCY 415-553-8090
NON-EMERGENCY 415-553-0123

Make sure to give these numbers to anyone taking care of your baby and to add them to the emergency contact list on your refrigerator.

This little step is doing something, and at the end of the day, that may just be enough.