Huge Scare

Ellen suffered a febrile convulsion on Saturday evening while we were visiting friends in Gloucester. She had a sudden fever on Friday afternoon, but she wasn't acting too unlike herself. We decided to go ahead with our plans to visit friends in Gloucester since we wouldn't have a chance after this weekend with Baby #2 due in just over a month and then moving. Ellen was feverish, but was still acting ok. We arrived at our friends' (the Harrises) house at 17:00, had supper, then were talking in the lounge. Ellen fell asleep in my arms, but woke just after 19:00. She commented on their cat coming into the room, I gave her a drink of water, then suddenly her convulsion started. Her limbs stiffened and her eyes rolled back. Then she stopped breathing. She turned a pale greeny-grey colour and her lips turned purple. I thought my baby was going to die in my arms.  My friend tried pounding her back on her shoulder to try to get any water out that may have become caught in her throat, though we weren't sure this what was causing her to stop breathing.  I gave her a few breaths just to try to get some air in her.  After a 2-3 minutes (we think) from the beginning of the convulsion, she started to take very shallow breaths. I could see her lips going back to pink, then her face.  We were so relieved. During all of this, our friend called 999 and a paramedic showed up VERY quickly.  He did numerous tests on her and wrote down what had happened.  The ambulance arrived a little while later. Ellen laid in my lap completely dazed and non-reactive, which was very normal after a convulsion. Ellen and I rode in the ambulance to the emergency room. Jeff followed in the car.  We saw a nurse straight away, but the wait to see the paediatrician began.  Ellen ran around and was basically back to normal. Once we got to see the paediatrician, he diagnosed Ellen with tonsillitis.  To make sure it wasn't a bladder infection, though, he wanted a urine sample.  Despite our best attempts - Ellen hadn't drank very much since lunch - after 2 hours and a bottle of Amoxicillan, we and the staff gave up and discharged us... it was 1:45 in the morning. We drove to our friends house (the Gilmores), arrived about 2:00am.

Since then, we've been concentrating on keeping Ellen's temperature down by keeping her dressed coolly, taking her temperature loads, giving her Calpol (paracetamol) when able and making sure she drinks as much as possible.  She was much better today, but still has a slight temperature.  The fever could last a couple more days, but she needs the Amoxicillan through Saturday.  Lesson learned: Babies and young children can't regulate they're temperature until they're 6 or 7 years old due to the hypothalamus being underdeveloped until then.  I need to be much more vigilant with fevers, take her temperature often, give her paracetamol and/or ibuprofen regularly and keep her as cool as possible, even removing clothing, giving her cool drinks and a cool bath. Febrile convulsions can last 5-6 minutes (I really don't know how long it lasted for Ellen), but it felt like an eternity.  It is very unlikely that they'll stop breathing according to the paediatrician at the hospitl and our paediatrician friend.  If this happens to your child, cool them down immediately by removing clothing, go to a cool room or even outside, put a cool cloth on her neck and turn them on their side to help with breathing.  Unfortunately, it's more common than I ever knew and terribly frightening... but now I know more. 

Making Eggs

Ellen loves to cook in her kitchen: soup, chocolate cake, toast... and last night, eggs.

Bump at 32 Weeks

Believe it or not, I'm 32 weeks pregnant!  Baby Girl is already different from Ellen.  I noticed early on how much more she moves and kicks then Ellen did; I love feeling her little movements.  However, she doesn't tend to respond to music the way that Ellen did.  She's also a big baby.  I started receiving comments about my bump and questions about how far along I was around 22-24 weeks.  During my whole pregnancy with Ellen, I was only asked twice about being pregnant.  At my midwife appointment a week and a half ago, my bump measured large, so I was scheduled for a scan last Monday.  At the scan, her head and legs measured just above the 50th percentile, but her tummy was above 95%!  She also weighed approximately 4lbs, 14oz... and I still have 2 months and lots of growing to go!  Due to her size I went for a glucose tolerance test on Tuesday morning, but thankfully my blood results have come back completely normal, ruling out gestational diabetes.  So, she's just going to be a bigger baby, taking after her daddy, who was 10lbs, 1oz. when he was born.  I'm hopeful that her weight will help induce labor this time and aid in delivery... hey, I can always hope!

 Ellen was showing off her tummy like Mommy.  We couldn't persuade her to stand next to me and stick out her tummy... would have been a cute picture.

 Kissy with Mommy

Singing Nursery Rhymes

Having a mommy and daddy who enjoy singing, it's no wonder that Ellen also loves to sing. She sings on the changing table, in the bath, in the car, while dancing, in the supermarket... basically any time.  Here she is singing the songs in her nursery rhymes book with Daddy.

Dancing and Ice Skating

Ellen loves to dance.  Although her dancing mainly consists of spinning around counter-clockwise, it's very cute and she has so much fun.  Ellen even started attending dance classes this month in a near-by village. Here she is dancing to "Do-Re-Mi" with a mommy-made hoop of ribbons.  I love when she sings "Ti" in this video.

Last week, Ellen discovered that she can "ice skate" on the kitchen floor with her bunny slippers on.  She usually insists that I ice skate with her... usually while I'm trying to cook supper.  I made the mistake of trying to ice skate on the carpet in the lounge since our kitchen is rather small, and Ellen looked at me as if I didn't know what I was doing and said, "No, Mommy, kitchen!"  Ok then...

 

Tickle Time

Jeff loves "Tickle Time" with Ellen as much as she loves it with her daddy.  Ok, just before bathtime isn't the best time, but oh well.  When she is this happy, it doesn't matter (too much).  Oh, and by the way, I don't do it anywhere near as well as Daddy.

Muddy Puddles!

Thanks to all of the rain we've been getting the past few weeks, there are plenty of "muddy puddles" that Ellen can splash in.  Yesterday, we actually had sun for a time, too!  Believe me, though, I'd much rather be having the rain and gale-force winds we've been having the past month than the frigid temperatures and snow that the Midwest and East Coast of the US have been having.

Ellen got to splash for the first time in "muddy puddles" like Peppa and George coming out of play group on Tuesday.  She loved it. I let her splash despite not having Wellies on; thankfully, I had a clean, dry pair of socks in the nappy bag that I put on her when we finally got to the car.  You'll hear kids in the background since we were right next to a day care.  

Ellen wore her Wellies for the first time today! I told her that we're going to go outside to splash in muddy puddles, but like Peppa and George, she needed to wear her boots... and she did without a quibble!  She splashed and squealed for at least 15 minutes.