Not what I expected when I opened the door

Sammy has had some gas and reflux symptoms so while we wait to see the pedi on Tuesday, I ordered some gripe water off of Amazon to try to help her out. I knew it was out for delivery yesterday and when the mailman came to deliver it, I was eager to try it out. I had also been trying out my Sakura Bloom ring sling and have been wearing Sammy around the house. So when the doorbell rang, I happened to have her on me already and it made it really easy to get up to go to the door.

I could see through the window that the mailman had left the package and was no longer there. So I opened the front door when something came flying at me missing me by inches. YES, FLYING. And it landed on the tile entryway.

It was a baby snake. 

It took me a couple of seconds to realize what had happened. At first, I thought it was a restaurant delivery menu been tucked into the crease of our door. But menus don't start slithering toward your dining room.

Cue complete and utter freak out.

Kevin was still sleeping and I had the baby strapped to me in the sling. I didn't want to go near it, but I also couldn't let it out of my sight to somehow allow it to slither into an unknown part of the house leaving us to wonder what and where it was. I was way too vulnerable so I just started yelling for Kevin. Luckily he heard me and came running in to see this snake which had perched itself into the corner of the entry hall.  Imagine his surprise!

He wasn't sure if it was a baby rattlesnake either because they can be hard to identify when they are small. But he was able to safely get it into a plastic pitcher with a shoe and cover it so it was safely contained while we tried to identify it. If it was a rattlesnake, it meant we probably had a nest somewhere and that would be really bad!

After posting this photo to Facebook and ultimately calling a local snake guy who actually answered his phone on a Sunday morning, we identified it was a harmless Yellow Belly Racer snake. And Kevin was able to release it into a field behind out house.

We think it climbed the door to make it's way into a wreath that I have hanging that sometimes birds hang out in. Because this thing didn't slither in on the ground, it came flying in from the air!

For someone who hasn't left the house in a while except for pediatrician and OB appointments, it was quite the adventure. I'm a little nervous about going through the door for fear of what might fly at me next! You know what they say - don't mess with Texas! ;-)

And PS, the ring sling was great. Sammy slept through the whole thing!