Sometimes being a mom is scary

This morning it sure has been at least. Baby woke up ridiculously early (again) this morning, and started crying pretty much from the moment I laid him down on the changing table to get him out of his PJ's, and didn't stop until he finally fell asleep for a short nap (before we head to the pediatrician's in a little bit). But that's not all.

He's been on a bit of a food strike the last few days. Suddenly, favorite foods like jelly sandwiches are tossed aside and rejected, and even pasta was rejected yesterday. As a result, he's not eaten much, so I thought for sure that he was just hungry. We sat down to a breakfast of oatmeal (because waffles and pancakes are very passe to Baby at the moment), which he tolerated about half a bowl of. That was pretty good. As soon as we sat down in the living room, though, he was a mess again. He was crying so hard that I think he was a bit hysterical. He didn't stop until I offered him his sippy cup with some water in it, but as soon as he decided he was done with the water, he went right back to crying. And it wasn't like "darn it I'm mad" crying, it was pathetic crying where he wanted me to hold him nonstop.

I thought maybe he was still hungry, so I offered him some Cheerios, which he dove into hungrily, and shoved a ton in his mouth. I should have tried to dig them out, but I didn't, he started to chew them, and then started choking. I totally froze. I didn't know what to do. At some point, I started patting his back hard, and screamed for Husband, who hadn't yet left for work, and ultimately Baby vomited all over me, but stopped choking. I handed him to Husband so I could clean up the mess, and just tried to keep it together. I failed in that respect, and totally freaked out about what could've just happened. Baby continued crying, and after I cleaned up the mess, I called the pediatrician and set up a sick baby appointment for later this morning. I laid him down for a nap, and it took him a little while to settle down, but he's quietly asleep now.

Crap, I spoke too soon. He's up from his nap and crying again already. I almost hope he's sick, just so the pediatrician can tell me something other than "it's just a phase." If this is going to be just a phase, I'm sorry, but I might need to do some bawling too. Wish me luck.