Happy Birthday?

Jane turned one year old last week! Let's just say it wasn't the best birthday...


For about 2 weeks now, she has had a runny nose and weepy eye. I thought it was allergies as it came along with all the blossoms and buds on the trees. It was rainy and cold most of the day, but we snuck out for a 10-minute walk before the downpour began again.



Her Daddy had a full day of finals. One final paper due, and 2 exams. We planned on him being gone until 10 0r 11:00 at night. He emailed me at 5:00 to tell me he was headed into his last exam.

Jane was kind of whiny all day. It made since, because we were cooped up inside after having some days of lovely weather, long outings, and park time. At dinner she did NOT want to eat. She barely nibbled and threw a lot of her food on the floor. This also made since, because she has recently decided she is a big girl who can feed herself. No more pureed babyfood please!

I gave up dinner and remembered I had no pictures for her birthday. I set her on my bed for a quick pick and she gave a couple of smiles, but mostly wanted to lay down with her blankie. It was only 6:00 (bedtime is 6:30 or 7:00 with some wind-down time in there). I decided just to skip the routine, and just breastfeed her and put her to bed if she was that tired.

We went in her room to the rocker and she reached up touched my face, and said, "Mama," for the first time! She started breastfeeding, and was gone. She stopped breathing, her eyes were open but unseeing, she was totally unconscious and non-responsive. Her body was limp. It was like holding a big newborn. I sat her up, "Jane, wake up! Janie, look at Mama." Nothing. It was so scary to look her in the eyes with no response behind them. I thought she had died in my arms. I felt her heart and it was POUNDING, so she was not dead, but not okay. So scary. I thought maybe she was having a heart attack (do babies do that?).


I realized I had no options of what to do for her. I ran to the living room (with her in my arms) and called 911. While I waited she started what looked like a hiccup in her body and she was BURNING. She was SO HOT. The paramedics came and she was just gaining consciousness again. I think it lasted about 3-5 minutes. She had a febrile seizure. It's where a young child's fever spikes so fast that their nervous system cannot handle it and they go into seizure. They did a few checks and waited until she was back to her sweet self and was chewing on a toy. We stripped her down to her diaper, dabbed her with a wet washcloth, and gave her Tylenol.

I was a wreak. She was exhausted. I went back to her room and sobbed while she slept in my lap. Her skin was so hot it almost hurt to touch her, and her fever was not going down. I couldn't put her in her bed because I was worried she would seize again. I called some neighbors to give her a blessing (it took a few tries because many of the men, including our hometeachers, were also in finals). They came and gave her a blessing of health that she could sleep and our home would have peace, and after they left Jane's fever started to go down and I felt peaceful enough that I could lay her in bed. A few minutes later Luke's mom called (I feel she was inspired), and said, "I was feeling like I should call, are you okay?" I cried and talked to her for maybe an hour until I felt a little better, checking on Jane periodically. Luke and I checked her every hour throughout the night.

The next day at her doctors's office they found two bad ear infections as the cause of fever. They gave us some antibiotics and had us rotate Motrin and Tylenol every 3 hours to keep her fever at bay and help with the pain. Even so, for 2 more days she cried and cried and had fever spikes periodically. By Saturday she had no fevers, and by Sunday she was actually smiling and playing again. Few!

Needless to say, we had no birthday celebration besides helping our sick baby feel better.