Life threatening...pennies??

I just experienced a moment I hope to never experience ever again (though I'm sure every mother goes through this at least once in her life).  I'm still shaking as I write this, but as a warning to other mothers and in the hopes this might help others who find themselves in this awful situation, I will explain what I'm talking about.

William was playing on the living room floor while I was in the kitchen.  I had already gone in there a few times and taken everything off the floor that he shouldn't have and he had a few toys which he was playing with.  I've heard him cough plenty of times without reacting too much to it, but not even a second after he coughed this time, I was flying into the living room.  Whether "mother's intuition" kicked in, or my guardian angel set the alarm off in my head (I prefer to think the latter), I knew something was wrong.

It took a lifetime to reach the living room, during which I heard him cough twice.  When I reached him, he was whimpering.  H was on his back and the first thing I saw was the penny on his chest, full of saliva.  My initial thought was, "thank God, he coughed it up!" until I realized something was still wrong.  His face was distress in between small gags and half coughs.

For a split second I had no idea what to do.  Was there something else in his mouth?  Or was this just from the penny that had been in there?  I picked him up and knew there was something else in there, and that it was lodged in his throat.  The thought crossed my mind to do a blind sweep, but I was afraid I would only push whatever was in there further down and make it worse.  I flipped him over in my arms so his stomach was facing the ground and his bum higher than his head and gave him a couple of good smacks on his back, trying to push toward his head in the hope that whatever was lodged in his throat would be propelled out.

It wasn't working.  I ran out to the kitchen to get my phone call 911, while sending automatic, wordless pleas to our guardian angels.  It hadn't cut off his airways yet as he was still breathing somewhat, but kept gagging and was struggling.  I was still unsure if anything was in there or if the penny that I saw had just done damage, but I decided to give it one more try and laid him on his stomach on my knee, tilted his body so gravity would help me dislodge whatever was in there, and gave him another good smack on the back, pushing toward the top of his spine.

I heard a plop on the ground and looked to see another penny in a pool of saliva.  William's breathing went back to normal, he stopped gagging and I knew I'd gotten it.  We both dissolved to tears and I thanked God and our guardian angels for their help.

I have no idea where those pennies came from.  I don't keep loose change around the house, and I just vacuumed the living room yesterday.  It taught me a good lesson in thoroughly checking the room before leaving him alone.  However, I also realize that as cautious as we try to be, things can still happen and we can't control everything.

But wow, that experience really shook me.  I just had a conversation a few weeks ago with my mom and sister about what to do when babies are choking, which is why I thought to do what I did.  I thank my guardian angel for putting that in my head and not allowing me to freeze up and panic.  It makes me wonder how many times our guardian angels have saved our lives!

Anyway, I hope you never have to experience that, but if it ever does happen, that's one thing to think of.

~Lindsay