Breath-Holding-Spells: Never a Dull Moment

A while back a friend jokingly accused me of doing odd or bizarre things for the sole purpose of having a good story to tell.  She was halfway right. I do like to tell stories. And  I have been known to do stupid things, most of which involve my hair.  But my kids are really the ones I have to thank for my best and favorite stories; and up until now, Dutch was really the star.  Many of you remember The Beaudreaux’s Butt Paste incident (click to read).  Perhaps these pics will jog your memory:

Yes that was an adventure: “Um, sorry about your brand new carpet and brand new walls, my son just covered the entire bedroom in oil-based diaper ointment.”  Thank goodness Joy is a gracious woman.

Well this last Friday Heidi decided to one-up her brother.  So she quit breathing.

Friday morning (Jeff’s day off) all is well, the kids are downstairs playing, Jeff is on the phone with the backflow technician, and I’m upstairs getting dressed.  Then I hear Jeff yelling my name–panicked yelling. I run downstairs and he’s holding Heidi: Blue, limp, not breathing. His voice breaks: “She’s not breathing, she had a seizure, I can’t get her to breath!”  In an instant of course I grab her–she’s unconscious, totally limp, eyes rolled back, blue. I splash water on her face, he calls 911.  Why didn’t I take that stupid infant CPR class?!! I start trying to breathe into her as best as I can.  Seconds seem to last forever, still no breathing.

After almost 2 minutes (2 minutes feel like forever!) she begins catching tiny short breaths…please God please God… then a little cry.  Of course relief washes over us and we’re praising God and kissing our girl and coaxing her to get more breaths.  She breaths, cries, then goes limp and falls asleep in my arms.

By then the ambulance and fire truck arrives. The EMTs come in, I assure them she’s fine.  I’m cool, calm, and collected until I hear a knock and find dear Joy standing there–she’d seen the ambulance and come right away.  “She’s fine,” I say, but my voice breaks and I see tears in her eyes and I look away so I don’t crumble into her arms (which has been known to happen). 🙂

The EMTs say that even though Heidi seems fine now, they recommend transporting her to Doernbecher’s ER, just to run tests and be sure all is ok.  What?! We have to go in an ambulance? So, Dutch (who was awesome through this whole thing) bravely marches off with Joy and Joel (so thankful to have wonderful neighbors and friends!), and I climb in the ambulance with Heidi while Jeff follows in our car.

Thankfully, our story ends happily.  Heidi is totally fine.  Apparently we just have TWO strong-willed children instead of one. Her condition, simply called Breath-Holding-Spells, apparently happens in some young children, when they get upset, cry, quit breathing, and pass out.  In extreme cases they can have seizures, like Heidi did, but apparently it’s not harmful and they can’t die from it because once their bodies go unconscious they begin breathing again and they end up being fine.  All Heidi’s tests came back great–100% healthy, except that she quits breathing, turns blue, and passes out.

So, never a dull moment with those two little lambs of ours.  In fact, today my parents (bless them!) were watching the kids and Heidi did it again–lesser of course, but cried, held her breath, turned blue and passed out. Fortunately they knew not to panic and splashed water on her face and she came out of it.  Sheesh!  What a little monkey that one is.  So here are some pics of our little princess, strapped up to the monitors, happy as a clam.  I’m pretty sure I’m going to save the ambulance and hospital bills and let her devote her first 5 years of allowance to paying those off.  Little stinker.

But seriously we’re just so glad she’s ok.  We were not unaware of the fact that we left Doernbecher happy and relieved, and most parents do not.  We are so very grateful.  Our little one’s lives are so precious; I appreciate that more than ever.

And, now that I think of it, having done some pretty ridiculous things just to have a story to tell … perhaps the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.  She did get an ambulance ride out of it. Hmmm.