quite a scare

So last Friday morning I was feeding Beckham his bottle and afterward I went to burp him.  He kinda gagged and then started this weird choking thing.  His eyes shut and wouldn't open, he was coughing but with his mouth shut, and he started kinda foaming at the mouth.  I didn't know if he was getting oxygen or not and he was turning white with purple-ish lips pretty quickly.  I called Zac out and we were both pretty stressed.  It seemed to last close to 10 minutes with Beckham just obviously struggling to get something out.  I even did the baby choking maneuver (is that out of date?!) and it didn't help.  Finally it was as if he got a big gasp of air and it just stopped.  He looked at us with watery eyes and just gave the biggest smile.  Totally scary.  I decided it wasn't normal-obviously-and because he's been congested since birth but this past few days it's been worse, thought it might be wise to get him into Dr. Matt.  It was a walk-in clinic only since it was Friday but Matt was there with another PA, Margo.  I figured my odds were pretty good that I'd see him.  I didn't.  We saw Margo.  After a 2 hour + wait in the waiting room.  That was fine, but because Matt is more familiar with my boys, I wish I'd insisted on seeing him.  Anyway, she examined him, listened to him, and came to the conclusion that it was probably acid reflux.  She prescribed something and we left.  Both boys were angels the entire 3.5 hours we were there which I was incredibly grateful for.  Got home and the rest of the day went pretty well.  I noticed Beckham was a little more stuffy, but he was happy and ate just great like usual.  I didn't feel real great about the reflux diagnosis because he's never not wanted to eat, he's 17 pounds!, he's not fussy or irritable when he's eating or after, he doesn't arch his back, and he's never been a spitter-upper.  But, I don't know, right?!  (:

hat night we headed up to the lake for an Elder's Quorum party and on the way there he started doing it again in his car seat (1.5 hour after eating).  I got him out on the side of the road and we were trying to help him and three cars stopped to see if we were alright.  We decided it would be better to stick close to home and went to my parents for a little while.  I held him on my lap in the front seat after he calmed down a little (this one was about 7 minutes long).  Once at my parents he was again fine, happy, and smiley.  He slept some and played some and we started to relax thinking it was a weird fluke that it would happen twice.  Dad and Zac gave him a blessing before we left that night.  Got home to our house, gave him one dose of his meds, and got the boys ready for bed.  After prayer I fed Bex his bottle again and while burping him, he started up again.  This time I had Zac film him so we could describe it when needed.  We both thought it would be best to just take him in because it was the weekend and the clinics wouldn't be open anyway-and I wouldn't sleep well that night knowing he could start doing that in his sleep.  Taylor & Megan kindly came over to stay with Grayson and we headed over to Caldwell.

Got there around 11:45 PM and waited for about 15 minutes before they got us back.  They attended to us and we explained what was going on as best we could, but I'm sure they thought we were smoking crack because Beckham was just sleeping from the time we got there through his first set of vitals and then he was so happy and deceiving when he woke up.  He totally hammed it up and thought everyone was great.  He fell asleep again and we just hung out waiting around.  The doctor had a chest X-ray ordered and Beckham was adorable with the little protective gear on and me holding him up for his xrays.  Such a cute baby boy!  They came back fine & normal.  Hmm...  Then he started having another episode.  This was his worst yet and lasted another 10 minutes or so.  The nurses hopped into action and it was as if they were thinking, "ah ha, this is what you were talking about.  Yeah, this is serious."  We at least felt vindicated and were glad they got to see it in action so something could be fixed.  They stuck tiny tubes down his nostrils and throat and sucked a ton of stuff out, and then he breathed a little easier.  He fell back asleep after recovering from it all and the doctor came in to talk with us.  She called what Beckham was doing an ALTE, (Acute Life Threatening Event) and that was pretty scary.  By this time it was about 3:30 AM and she said he definitely needed monitoring overnight but that their hospital wasn't equipped to monitor infants in this specific way.  We had to be moved...

So Bex and I rode in the ambulance (I remembered I had my camera at this point and whipped it out) and he slept the whole time to St. Luke's Boise.  Zac followed us and we got to the great Pediatrics ward.  We were so tired by this time and Beckham just smiled through their weighing, taking vitals, and being prodded and hooked up to machines.  Then he fell back asleep and Zac and I snuggled up on the very uncomfortable couch in the room and slept for a couple hours.

When we woke up around 8 my parents were there and it was nice to have them to visit with and as support.  The doctor was great and all the nurses fell in love with Baby boy.  He is such a charmer and except for when he was in the midst of an episode, was a complete angel.  Seriously.  Even while having his nose sucked out he was trying to grin so big at the nurse.  She said, "I have NEVER in 12 years had a baby who didn't cry when I did this!"  She just kept commenting on how mild mannered and happy he was.  She's right-he is such a good little guy.  He loved sucking on the wires, drinking the berium for his upper GI test, was strapped to a papoose board, and had lots of loving.  It was good to see that he was getting enough oxygen even during his episodes and that made them a little more bearable for me.  They didn't think it was reflux in the traditional sense of the word-instead they came to the conclusion (because all his chest xrays/upper GI tests came back normal) that what probably happened was that he aspirated a little during his morning feeding on Friday and then kept trying to get all that stuff out, causing him to have the episodes.  I was pretty confident in this diagnosis and both Zac and I felt like that was accurate.  They decided to keep him overnight for monitoring again, but it was much more laid back because he wasn't having them as often or severely.

The day was broken up with a few things.  Zac & Dad went to Costco to get Bex some jammies & formula and then we went down to the cafeteria for a snack while Mom fed Bex.  Lisa & Sterling visited in the morning and Bishop Mark & Brenda came in the later morning.  Chase & Bre came later afternoon while visiting their little baby in the other hospital which was so sweet of them.  Z's family came and his brother Ryan came in his firefighter gear because he happened to be getting someone out of an elevator that got stuck on our floor!  Rock & Julie and Tom & Becca came later that night and brought us yummy Texas Roadhouse dinner and stayed till midnight talking.  It was fun to visit and laugh our heads off with them and to take our minds off the stressful previous days.  We were exhausted by the time they left and I slept up in the tiny crib/bed with Beckham and Z took the awful couch. (:

They sent us home pretty early Sunday morning with instructions of not giving him any medicine, raising his mattress while he sleeps, burping him every couple ounces instead of waiting till the end, and that he needs to see his pediatrician for a checkup this week.  They told us what to watch for as far as signs of pnemonia and reflux, and said they thought he was the cutest baby.  Seriously, who wouldn't?  (:

We had a yummy lunch at my folks and then all four of us took a LONG nap at home.  Aunt Alison and two of her kids came to visit when we woke up and then Jeff & Jess brought us dinner.  We really appreciate the calls, emails, visits, babysitting of Grayson (Taylor), my presidency's handling of primary with little warning, etc., and realize what amazing friends & family we've been blessed with.  Even more than that, we realize how blessed we are to be given these little spirits to raise and how crazy stressed we can get over someone so little.  Makes us want to treasure every moment even more and love these boys even more.

Since we've been home things have been better.  His cough is worse and he's still super congested, but no more episodes and he's been happy as ever.  I'm watching him pretty darn close though & feel like it may be in his chest a bit more now, so Dr. Matt will check for me more thoroughly on Thursday.  Right back into real life though and grateful as ever for our kids & each other.