Below is picture my sister Liz took of baby Grace while lying in the hospital emergency room on her very first birthday. We had a great day of celebrating Grace's first year at a party with family and friends. The love for Grace was oozing out every window and door. After the party we went back home and spent some time with Larry's family, who were spending the weekend with us. About seven o'clock Grace felt kinda warm. Since we hadn't unpacked all of our boxes yet I didn't know where the thermometer was, but I knew she felt warm so I gave her some motrin. About a half hour later, she was back to her playful little self, happy and content. After such a long day, we all decided to call it a night about eleven thirty or so. Alliah and cousin Alexis were sleeping in Grace's room so we put her to bed with us. As soon as we laid down Grace started shaking. She was breathing really heavy and was grabbing onto me for dear life. I was scared! Her hands and feet were like ice, but her body was burning up! I quickly called our pediatrician and told them her symptoms. We were told to take her to the hospital. Larry and I were already out of bed and awake as could be. We got dressed and headed for the car. I tried to strap her in her carseat but she REALLY started shaking! I immediately took her back in the house and we called 911. The ambulance arrived within three minutes. Me and Grace were taken in the ambulance and Larry followed behind us with his mom and sister, Diane. On the way to the hospital Grace had a seizure. At that minute I was so glad to be in the ambulance. I would have freaked out had we been alone in the car with her. The medic stabilized her, but she was so weak and could barely lift her little hands up to grab ahold of mine. Her fever was 106.7 and rising. When we arrived at the hospital they strippped her down, rectally injected Tylenol and put cool towels all over her. My mom, dad and sister, Liz, arrived as she was starting to cool down. Liz took this picture of baby Grace as she lied in the hospital bed. She'd already downed a grape popscile, thus the purple lips.
It took five hours for the doctors and nurses to get Grace's temperature down. After Grace was poked, proded, x-rayed, checked, re-checked, and checked again, we finally left the hospital at 5:30am Sunday morning. You can see in the picture below that Grace was feeling much better. The hospital offered to let us stay for observation but Grace was 95% better than when we arrived. We went home. Unfortunately, we had to go back to the ER on Sunday night because her fever was back: 104.5 and rising. (The hospital gave me 2 thermometers) What?! Our poor baby. After reviewing her xrays from the night before, the doctor's concluded Grace had the beginning stages of pnemonia. The fever was the bodies response, trying to fight off the pnemonia. We were absolutely shocked! She didn't have a cold, cough, runny nose or anything! Pnemonia? The ER doctor put her on an antibiotic and four days later, Grace was back to her beautiful, playful little self. Thank God He helped us though that one. This whole experience made us appreciate so much more all the gifts God has given us: our children, our family, our life. We have so much NOT to take for granted.
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