Scare

Yesterday, Eddie woke up with a fever, but it didn't seem too bad. He had a pretty normal morning, playing, then fell asleep while nursing sometime after 11 and had a second morning nap (which he never does.) When he woke up around noon, he was cheerful. Then after about ten minutes, as he was crawling along, he dropped his head, gave a piteous cry, and stayed frozen there on all fours. I didn't realize anything was wrong until Anne picked him up.  His eyes were staring and he was completely unresponsive.

The phone was dead, and calling on our computer through Google Talk (which is how we do a lot of our phone calls) doesn't allow calling 911.  I tried calling our doctor, but the office was closed for Presidents' Day.  Luckily Anne had plugged in the phone and turned it on, so that by now I could call 911 with it. After that the firefighters were there within a couple of minutes (the fire department is only half a block away, but they brought the truck around anyway!), followed by EMTs in an ambulance a few minutes later. This whole time Eddie was unresponsive and jerking. It was very frightening, although the firefighters and EMTs assured us that it's not unusual and babies recover without ill effects.

After getting in the ambulance, Eddie began to cry inconsolably, which was at least a more familiar state, but wouldn't open his eyes or respond to us. He stayed the same way at the hospital for a couple of hours, calming down once or twice but not for long. He finally fell asleep around 2.  When he woke up around 3, he was much better, if grumpy. After that he was okay, and his fever (which peaked above 104°) went down to normal temperatures. We stayed at the hospital for another four hours, though, with a neurologist visit and some tests to rule out various possibilities. These were all negative and they concluded that it was just a "normal" febrile seizure.

We hadn't brought the phone, and Anne was more or less in her pajamas, and we hadn't gotten anything to eat; Eddie got by with some food which happened to be in his diaper bag. We didn't know how we'd get home, since we don't know anyone's phone numbers! Fortunately we have terrifically generous friends and one works at the hospital.  The operator connected us and he gave us a ride home after we were released.  Later, his wife brought us a lovely cooked meal with wine and flowers. Knowing such people makes these terrible things in life easier, and we're very grateful.