My Scariest "Mom Moment"

This weekend, on a casual Sunday afternoon trip to Costco... it happened. I was reminded that I don't have it all figured out.  Mayhem's forehead felt hot when I picked him up. I could tell he didn't feel well, and I mentioned to my husband that we should bring him right home. As we were driving home, his eyes rolled back into his head, his pacifier slipped out of his mouth, he began to drool, and his head was 'tick' 'tick' ticking to one side. I jumped into the back seat of the car, unbuckled him from his car seat and started screaming.  All I got in return was a blank stare. I cannot get the image of his face out of my head.

His body was limp, and he wasn't responding to me. My husband headed for the hospital, luckily we were very close. After driving through a few red lights and up a few sidewalks, we were there. I ran into the hospital lobby, screaming, "Where's the Emergency Room?!" I must have looked crazy, not that I cared. A nurse took us back, and took his temperature 104. "It's a febrile seizure," she said nonchalantly. "Is he OK?!" "The doctor will be right in."

[caption id="attachment_382" align="aligncenter" width="224" caption="my poor baby mayhem"][/caption]

Meanwhile, I have no idea that a 'fever seizure' means he'll be fine. All I know is that I'm freaking out- can someone tell me what's going on?! Someone comes in to take down all our information, since we didn't come in through the usual route. At this point, for whatever reason... it all started hitting me.  And, Little J wanted to hop up on the bed and told me, "I'm sick too, Mommy. Is he going to be OK?"

After x-rays, a flu test, a respiratory virus test, and some baby Motrin- we were sent home. The doctor's parting words, "He'll be just fine." Well, I won't be. I am scarred for life. I'm so happy that this horrifying event is somehow not that big of a deal (medically, anyways). But I am still trying to calm down, 2 days later.

Apparently, a febrile seizure is something that happens to about 5% of children between the ages of 6 months and 4 years. He will grow out of it. He likely is more prone to them, because his father used to have them. There is no long term damage, and as long as he 'comes back' quickly- no cause for alarm. I had never seen a seizure, and I had no idea what was happening. Now that I know, I can't say that it will be any easier the second time...

Here is a happy picture from yesterday, of Mayhem enjoying his Rody horse. Just to counter the depressing hospital picture. I needed to look at this a lot over the past couple days...

[caption id="attachment_383" align="aligncenter" width="224" caption="I'm fine, Mommy!"][/caption]

Have you had a scary 'mommy moment'?  Please share, so I know I'm not the only one!