Not a good night...

The other night was not a good night.  Everything seemed fine like normal until about 1:30.  Jacob woke up and started to fuss.  This was quite a bit earlier then normal for him to wake up hungry, but we didn't think too much about it.  Nothing else unusual though, I got him up and sat him on the bed to change his diaper.  We always change his diaper first and then feed him (since feeding him usually makes him sleepy and fall asleep more easily).

So as I was changing Jacob, Mark was laying up by his face holding the binkie in his mouth and trying to calm him down since he was fussy.  Then everything just seemed to happen so fast.  All of a sudden Jacob stopped breathing.  Then his legs started to flail around very abnormally.

I am so grateful Mark was there because he immediately went into action.  He flipped Jacob over and started hitting his back because it almost seemed like he was chocking on something.  I then began to call 911.  Mark said that Jacob appeared to be foaming around his mouth and so went and got the nasal aspirator to try and suck out anything that might be in his mouth.

The whole "episode" probably only lasted two minutes but it felt like the longest two minutes of my life.  I have never felt so completely helpless and afraid.  Jacob finally began crying once again and slowly started to calm himself down and breathing normally.  Within minutes the paramedics were here.  They checked Jacob and although by this time he was breathing fine again, they felt like we should take him to the hospital still.

So I left with the paramedics and rode with Jacob in the ambulance while Mark followed behind in the car.  When we got to The Children's Hospital they immediately put us in a room in the emergency department.  They hooked him up so that they could get a constant read of his vitals and got all of his information and the story of it all.

It actually ended up being about a half an hour before Mark came and once the nurses left us I had a very hard time keeping it together.  I was still so scared.  Mark finally came and it was a huge relief.  I depend on him so much and would be completely lost without him.  We just held Jacob in relative silence.

I really did not know what I wanted the doctors to tell us.  Obviously I just wanted Jacob to be happy and healthy.  Part of me didn't want them to find anything - I didn't want anything to be wrong.  But another part of me wanted them to find something so that we could know what caused this to happen and hopefully prevent it in the future.  

Later, they took us to get an x-ray of Jacob's lungs to see if there was any damage or indication to what started this whole thing.  Everything came back clean and his vitals remained good.  However, they wanted to do another test which looked at the brain to see if there had been a seizure.  To do this test, they needed to admit Jacob to the hospital.

Around 5:30 AM they admitted Jacob to the hospital and sent us up to the ninth floor.  They continued to check his vitals and we told our story once again with our new doctor.  He believed that based on the description of how his body was moving that Jacob had not had a seizure.  However, they continued to monitor his vitals.

At 9:15 a team of nine doctors came into our room to discuss Jacob's case.  After discussion they believed that this was an isolated event.  Since Jacob has been perfectly healthy with the exception of this incident and was showing no distress or anything since he had come to the hospital they were comfortable with sending us home.  They said that this will probably just be one of those things we will never exactly know for sure what happened.  However, they said that 80% of these cases is due to a reflux problem and he probably just had mucus or something in his throat.

We were so grateful that he was fine and they felt comfortable with him being sent home however, it still makes us nervous because there is nothing from stopping it happening again.  But we talked to Teresa (my sister-in-law) and apparently pretty much the exact same thing/situation happened to them with Miriam.  They ended up getting a special monitor that monitors a baby's breathing and heart beat while they are sleeping.  We special ordered one for Jacob and were able to use it today.  The hospital didn't mention this or recommend it or anything but I think it will bring us a lot of peace of mind.

One of our greatest reliefs and blessings we felt was that we were awake when all of this happened.  It absolutely terrifies me to think of what would have happened had this occurred in his sleep without us there to be with him.  So this will be really helpful I believe.

Overall, Jacob seems to be his happy and healthy self - maybe just a little more tired is all.  Mark and I were absolutely exhausted by the time night came along  and still haven't gotten too much sleep.  We have still been so paranoid about Jacob's breathing and end up just watching and listening to him sleep most of the night.  So hopefully tonight we can catch up. 

I am just so grateful that Jacob is still here and doing okay.  He is such an incredible blessing in my life and I truly cannot imagine life without him.  Mark and Jacob are my whole world.  I love them both so much and am grateful that Heavenly Father is watching over my little family.

Really...who couldn't LOVE this boy?!