My baby had a seizure
Here’s what I wish I would have known
We spent the weekend on vacation in upstate New York visiting friends, eating pizza and sleeping in a musty hotel room. On the flight home, Frankie was quiet and lethargic — an unusual temperament for her. We wrote it off as travel side effects.
When I got home from work the next day I nursed her and she swiftly fell asleep. She was warm so I stripped her down to her diaper and put her in her crib. About an hour later I began to get nervous and told my husband we should go wake her up and take her temperature.
Mom instinct is a thing you can feel.
Frankie was groggy when I pulled her out of the crib and lay her down on our bed. We took her temperature and saw that it was 103.3°. As we huddled around her deciding what to do, she twitched.
And then she didn’t stop.
I held my 10-month-old in my arms as her little body shook, her head turned to the side and eyes looking away from me. I didn’t know what was happening. I thought she was dying. I prayed out loud — something I’ve never done before.
My husband calmly told me she was having a seizure, and I yelled to him to call 911. As I suspect is common in emergencies, it took him no fewer than three hours to figure out how to unlock my phone and…
