18 Months: looking back.

Time out.  Did I really just type 18m!?  Yes, she is now closer to be 2 years old than 1 year old.  And man we're so far away from her birthday June 3, 2011.  If you are a parent, you'll understand how quickly these 18m have flown by.

*warning* this post is a bit of a downer.

You'll also understand how we love Eliza so much it hurts.  Exactly 1 year ago Eliza got her 6m vaccinations.  About 24 hours later she started vomiting, quite severely.  After 8 hours without a wet diaper and her throwing up all of her bottles, we took her to the ER on the advice of the on-call doctor from her pediatrician's office.  That night the ER at Peyton Manning Children's Hospital tested her blood for dehydration and gave us some pedialite to give her.  Her levels were low but not dangerously so, and she actually managed to keep down some fluid.  So on our way we went.  We left the ER around 9pm and Eliza fell asleep in the car.  She didn't wake up at home when we put her to bed, she slept through the night and by 8:30am we were worried she'd been asleep for so long.  So we got her out of bed to come lay with us and we wanted to give her a bottle.  When we got her up she sounded horribly congested and was just lethargic.  She was so obviously sick.  She ate some bottle and was almost asleep again.  We decided to give her saline drops in her nose to help ease her congestion.  Almost immediately after giving her the drops, Eliza's body seized and her eyes rolled back.  Gary called out, getting my attention. We acted fast then: me grabbing her, Gary running to the phone and dialing 911.  Just 30 seconds earlier we could hear her breathing through the congestion.  After her body relaxed after the seizing, there was no sound coming from Eliza and no movement.  I jostled her and yelled and Gary told the dispatcher what happened--that we thought our baby wasn't breathing.  I could get Eliza to open her eyes, but she'd just go limp and quiet immediately after.  A police officer was at our house within 3 minutes of our call.  Those 3 minutes were the worst moments of our lives.  We truly thought we were losing her.  By the time the police officer arrived Eliza finally gave some sign of being with it.  But just a few minutes later, she seemed to lose consciousness again.  When the paramedics arrived soon after, they were amazing.  They gave her oxygen until she seemed to be more stable and we took the ambulance down the road to our local hospital.  What followed was the worst day of our lives, but everything came back normal.  Everything.  Thank God.  After a couple days in the hospital for observation, we were sent home.

I cry recalling that morning.  It's been so vivid in my mind the past couple of days and I'm reminded of the pain parenting can bring.  I don't believe I've ever told the whole story, but the ultimate conclusion was that Eliza did not have a seizure, but that she choked on the saline drops and she was so dehydrated that her body couldn't handle it.  It was ironic that it wasn't a seizure considering 3 months later we'd be dealing with true febrile seizures--the second and third worst moments of my life.  But, lately, Eliza has been healthy and we're so blessed.  I wanted to share in the hope that this will help me get over the event 1 year ago.

The normal monthly stats update will be posted shortly.  Thanks for reading, and hug your babies tight.  <3