Ansley's Ambulance Ride

Saturday was a day that we will never forget! After lunch on Saturday, we put the girls in their bouncy seats to watch a little Baby Einstein to "wind down" before their nap. We left them alone to watch the movie because, if we stayed in there, they would either want out of their seats or try to socialize. After about 10 minutes Daddy went to move the girls to their beds for their naps. He immediately noticed that something was wrong with Ansley. She had thrown up on herself and her eyes were rolled toward the back of her head. As he went to pick her up, she was not responding and was barely breathing. He came downstairs and said "something is wrong with Ansley." After grabbing her from him, she was completely limp and not making eye contact at all. We shined a flash light in her eyes and she didn't respond to that either. Her skin was getting very pale and her lips were a dark purple. We quickly started CPR and called 911 for an ambulance. After what seemed like forever, Ansley started to faintly cry and taking shallow breaths, but she kept trying to fall asleep. The paramedics finally arrived, which also seemed like forever! We loaded up into the ambulance and Ansley was hooked up to the oxygen/heart monitor and they began administering a breathing treatment. Both Abigail and Ansley normally HATE breathing treatments, but Ansley just laid there and didn't seem to mind at all. Her oxygen finally came up about half way to the hospital. When we were about five minutes away, she started trying to rip the mask off, which made us feel a little better. After spending a few hours at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital, the doctor diagnosed her as having a febrile seizure. Febrile seizures are apparently very common in children up to age five. They can be caused by a quick spike in fever, dehydration, and a few other things. Typically, when a child has a fever of this type, the parent should just let the seizure run its course. However, in our situation, Ansley had actually aspirated on her vomit, which made her choke and, therefore, unable to breathe. Supposedly, this is VERY rare for this type of seizure. Unfortunately, there is really nothing you can do to prevent these seizures. We will go see our pediatrician tomorrow to make sure she feels like everything is ok. From Mommy and Daddy's point of view, Ansley seems to be herself again...full of energy and into everything! :) We knew that she had started feeling better when we were about to leave the hospital because she was determined to rip all of the monitors off her tummy and kept trying to crawl out of the crib. :)

We want to thank all of you for the calls, visits, and prayers yesterday! Also, a BIG thank you to all of our wonderful neighbors for taking care of Abigail...we basically called and said "can you keep Abigail? We have called an ambulance for Ansley." We dropped her off on their front porch with no instructions and no "supplies"! Thank goodness we have awesome neighbors! They went to our house and packed her a bag...and even cleaned up the vomit!!!! THANK YOU!

Below are a couple of pictures from just about an hour before the dramatic event. No...I didn't manage to get a picture of Ansley in the ambulance, but it will forever be etched in our minds!!!