My heart stopped

Today I had the most terrible experience. It was seriously awful and I have gone back and forth on if I should even post about it, because I am really shook up about it. Then again, I don't want to have to tell the story more than I have to, so here goes. I want to warn you that this is not a pleasant, haha kind of moment like what I usually post, if you don't want to have nightmares, you might not want to read on, I am seriously shaking still and this happened like ten hours ago. I wanted to warn you, because I may never sleep again. Today I was in one room in my mom's house working on some really cute finger puppets for a Halloween party, and my kids were scattered around playing in different parts of the house. Two rooms away, I heard something break quietly, like a piece of wood splitting and a little whimper and I thought Topher had been climbing on my mom's china cabinet and broke something, but it didn't sound loud, and I'm surprised I even heard it. I got up prepared to yell at him when I saw him dangling from a blind cord kicking his legs trying to get back into a window sill. His eyes were rolling up and he was tugging with his hands. My heart stopped. I don't know how I even moved. But I did, and I got there fast. I picked him up so that it wasn't strangling him anymore, and had to put him back in the window sill to get the cord back off his neck. He was breathing, but just lay there limp in my arms with his eyes looking super lethargic for what seemed like forever. I sobbed and tried to get him to give me some kind of reaction, and finally he started to cry too. It was the most terrifying experience I can even imagine, and the image of him hanging there will forever haunt me, it seems so surreal now, because he is running around and playing happily like nothing happened. The only proof is the small scratches and slight red line around his neck and a small splinter of wood that I will forever be grateful for. I am so glad to have heard that small little crack that saved my baby's life today. - I don't know how many times we have told him to quit playing in the blind cords, he's big enough to climb up and unwind them from wherever we put them. - Chad is cutting all of ours off tonight, I never want to see a blind cord low enough for them to reach again. - I want to put all my kids in a rubber room and keep them safe from everything and I know that's not possible, I am just so grateful that it ended up the way it did, because it could have been so much worse. - Hug your babies extra tight tonight, and cut your blind cords extra short okay? Because that was absolutely terrifying.