Being a new parent is a wondrous, joyful time, but it can also be stressful and terrifying.
You’re suddenly in charge of keeping a tiny, living thing alive in a crazy world and often with the added confusion of very little sleep and a whole lot of coffee.
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Darian Depreta is the mom of Bella, an adorable little girl.
Like any mom, Darian dotes on her little girl and wants her to grow up safe and healthy, and like any mom, she’s on alert for anything out of the ordinary.
Which is why it’s completely understandable that a strange black mark on the roof of Bella’s mouth freaked her out.
Darian wiped at it, but it didn’t appear to be something that would come off.
Panicking, she called her mom and then called the doctor, getting an emergency appointment for only 30 minutes later.
At the office, the Nurse Practitioner took a look and also tried to clean the mark away. Again, it had no effect.
Consulting with the doctors, it at first seemed like it could just be a birthmark.
But Darian wasn’t having it:
“I INSISTED it was not because I always look in her mouth and clean it.”
It does seem unlikely that a baby could have a birthmark that no one had ever noticed before.
Between doctors and parents, babies have a lot of people looking at every inch of them.
Darian had to keep insisting that it wasn’t a birthmark, until eventually the doctors believed her.
At a loss, the doctors began the process of getting Bella in to see two different specialists.
Meanwhile, the nurse decided to take another look at the mark.
They notice a lighter spot along one edge of the spot and began to poke at it.
The nurse worked at it and finally dislodged the whole thing.
“ONLY TO FIND OUT IT WAS CARDBOARD FROM A BOX BELLA CHEWED STUCK TO THE ROOF OF HER MOUTH
Yep, it was a piece of cardboard.
Darian was so embarrassed that she feels like she can never show her face in that doctors’ office again. She says that she cried and laughed for a good five minutes afterward.
Of course, everyone is lucky that Bella didn’t choke and they can laugh at it now.
In response to some nasty comments, Darian explained that Bella is teething and will chew on anything she can find. While Darian loaded the dishwasher, Bella found a box waiting to be put out for recycling.
She only had the box for a few seconds.
Darian noticed immediately and took it away, even checking her mouth and removing a few small pieces.
She just missed the piece that had already gotten stuck up top.
From the photo, it looks like a once in a lifetime case of the piece being just the right size and shape to perfectly suction to the roof of Bella’s mouth.
As for people who still pointed out that the choking hazard was no laughing matter, Darian knows that.
“Yes she could have choked on it and I’m thanking God she did not. The only reason it was posted was because after crying, panicking and trying to figure out what it was (the doctors didn’t even know), she was ok. The laugh was after the storm of it all.”
