our Post Christmas drama

The scariest thing happened to us while we were in Arizona visiting Jeff's family after Christmas. We'd only been there one day, and we were so glad to be staying at Jeff's brother's house who'd s Pediatrician. Our Arizona Medical Charts are growing, while in California, the kids are healthy as can be! We're so grateful to have Steve close when horror hits!

So, in a nutshell, we were playing with the 15 Mousser Cousins all day. Just before we were getting ready to leave, I was holding Ivy and I thought her forehead felt hot...{I don't really notice that stuff very often, so I was surprised to recognize it}. We left, and as soon as we got back to Jeff's brother's house {where we were staying...about 0-15 minutes away} we took both Ivy and Max's temperatures. Ivy's read 102.5.

So, we stuck them in the bath, like we do every night, and we were just going to go to the store to get some Motrin for her when they were in their PJs...Jeff was washing the kids, I was getting PJs out and tidying up the room we were staying in, when I hear Jeff in the bathroom say, "Whoa, Ivy, what happened?" and then the next thing I heard was him yelling my name. I turned around and he handed her to me in a towel telling me.

She was completely stiff, it seemed to me that she wasn't breathing, and if she was, she was barely getting anything in. Her eyes were rolled back in her head, she was shaking, she was foaming at her mouth.

Jeff and I were both scared to death, and I didn't know what to do! I told Jeff to call 911...I ran into the front room with her, laid her down, and did the only thing I knew I ought to do: turn her on her side. in the middle of telling Jeff the address we were at (so glad I know their address by heart), and telling him what she was doing, and sort of telling Max what was going on, all I could do was pray over and over again that she'd be OK.

We could hear the sirens immediately, and the firemen and the paramedics were there just barely after she stopped seizing...which was like a minute.

We rode in the ambulance to the Children's hospital in Mesa, just after Jeff and Steve (his brother who got there 2 seconds after the PMTs) gave her a blessing. Pretty sure the blessing was more for me then for her, because it calmed me down and comforted me.

Jeff followed the ambulance in our car and after some blood and urine tests we were able to leave after 2 hours....she'd had a febrile seizure, which is just caused from a sudden spike in temperature...I had them when I was little, all the time. {dang, I passed on the stinkin' recessive gene}. So, we just have to be careful of her getting a fever...any time she starts to get the symptoms of being even a little sick, we'll be filling her with Motrin up the wazoo...I don't ever want that to happen again!

It was the scariest thing I have ever been through, and really makes me so grateful to still have Ivy. I can't imagine our life without her, and while this was probably not a big deal (they told us we don't have to call 911 next time...yeah right) it WAS a big deal to us. we love our little Ives.

Max was in the tub with her, the poor kid had nightmares for the rest of the week, screaming out her name in his sleep. While daddy was on the phone, and I was sitting with Ivy, he kept saying: 'excuse me, mom, excuse me, mom, excuse me, mom, is ivy OK?" He was so helpful to us, even though he was so scared, he ran and got a diaper for Ivy so we could keep her toasty. He ran back and got his PJs even though he was scared to leave us, and he got my purse so I could call Steve. I've tried to tell him what happens, and what to do if he sees her do that again...ahhh.

We are so grateful we were at Steves when it happened, 2 seconds away from the fire dept so they could get there fast, we are so grateful that Steve was only 1 mile from home when it happened so he could be there to help us. So grateful to his wife, Becky who got my sweatshirt, my purse, phone and a water bottle together for me, which I wouldn't have thought of to go to the hospital. Grateful to Lexi, Julie, Aimee, and Katie for dropping their plans to stay with Max while we were gone and comfort him and put him to bed just like we do. Thankful for Grandma for meeting us at the hospital even though she had a house full of cute cousins. It really made a horrible situation bearable.