10 months-Vacation and a Hospital stay

This little gal is just so sweet. These pictures were taken the day she came home from the hospital... more on that later. 

She loves to stand on our bed and look at this picture. She reaches for Brixton and says "ahda."

In June, we went on vacation to Galveston. Nate and Brixton drove and Ila and I flew. She's not a very good car rider so we figured this would save us money and sanity. I was nervous about the flight but she slept from take off until just before landing. We were on a tiny plane, at the very back. There was just one seat on this side of the aisle, which was nice since I planned to nurse her through take off and landing. 

Sweet little beach baby. 

This was a cute moment. I was walking her along a dock and notice that when we would start moving she would kick her legs out and hold them there.

But as soon as I stopped she would put her legs down. I tried walking and stopping a few times and she kept doing it. Made me chuckle. 

Flight home... she slept the whole time again. She's much better on a plane than in the car. I was relieved, I'm sure the other passengers were too. 

Getting a picture of these two smiling is pretty much impossible at this point. 

The last Sunday in June was also my last day at Channel 4. I went to work that morning, to church, lunch and then home for a nap. Nate had given Ila Tylenol around 5am because he thought he felt warm. By 8:00 she was normal temperature, so he took her to church. She was pretty lethargic during church and by lunch I could tell she didn't feel well. We got home and gave her more medicine. I napped and Nate hung out with her.
After I woke up, around 4ish, she still felt warm and we could tell she didn't feel well. Twice that day she had had two strange episodes. Once, while Nate was changing her and once while I was nursing her. She would scream, a weird scream and then her arms would flail out to the sides. She was immediately OK. We thought it was weird but didn't know what it was because she was immediately OK.
So, back to after I woke up. I had given her some ice chips and taken her temperature. The ear thermometer said her fever was 102.6. I didn't believe it. That thing seems to be wrong a lot so I was looking for the regular thermometer to take her temp in her armpit. I had just picked her up when she screamed that weird scream again and her arms flailed out to the side. This was basically right at 5:00.
I moved her down, cradled her but she was gone. Her eyes were up and to the right and she was making a strange noise. I knew she was having a seizure at that point but I had no idea what to do. I told Nate we had to take her to the hospital. There was no way I was putting her in a carseat like that so I told Nate to call 911. We rushed down the hall and woke Brixton up as Nate called for help. Nate took Ila while he talked to the dispatcher. Her seizure was still going. I went to Brixton and tried to explain that she was sick and that we had to take her to the hospital right then. He got dressed and we went outside to wave down the ambulance. I could hear it coming and so I went back inside and got Ila from Nate and carried her out to the curb and waved to the ambulance. She was still seizing. They took her and started hooking her up to monitors.

This picture is in the ambulance. 

They sat outside of our house for what seemed like forever. They had to give her two drops of valium to get her seizure to stop. Once it stopped they took us to Children's Hospital. Based on the 911 call and texts to our Qgroup we think the seizure lasted about 20 minutes.

The ER doctor was concerned she had bacterial meningitis, based on some symptoms the paramedic noticed. They gave her an antibiotic to treat that while they waited for test results. She had a CT scan and a chest X-ray and then they admitted us.

She really liked the red light, monitor on her toe. 

All of her initial tests were normal. Monday they didn't do any tests. It was Tuesday morning she had an MRI and then an EEG and we met with a neurologist.

This is the EEG.

All of her tests showed that everything in her brain and body is normal. They have diagnosed it as a complex febrile seizure, which means it was fever induced. It's considered complex because it lasted so long.

Once she was cleared we were released. It was almost 48 hours exactly after the seizure happened.

They think the fever was caused by an unknown virus. We hope it doesn't happen again, but the reality is it could. We are, hopefully, prepared if it does. We have a special medicine that we are to give her if she has a seizure that lasts five minutes or more.

We went home and she was still a little sick, but she was doing better.

We are so grateful for all of the prayers for her.

We're hoping this month will be a little less eventful, but with this girl life is wild. She has a sweet personality, but she is definitely a strong-willed child.

She now has four teeth and loves to pull up. Brixton didn't walk until 14 months, but I'm thinking she will take off by her first birthday. We'll see.