Life is Precious

It started off like any other Sunday.

But it wasn't.
We went church (running late, of course)
We came home, made lunch, let the girls play for a little bit & then put them down for naps.
Kevin & I planned on getting stuff done around the house, but I was exhausted from our Tahoe trip last week, so I decided to take a nap also.
After we all got up from our naps, the girls had a snack & then they were playing dress up & blocks.
Claire was running around the living room like she always does,
(If you know Claire, you know she doesn't walk...she runs)
As she was running toward the stairs, she tripped and fell right before the entry way step.
Her chest hit the step & her head hit the tile entry way.
Kevin and I were only a few feet away, so I quickly picked her up to console her.
Claire didn't cry....she was doing the "silent cry" (you know when their mouth is open, but nothing is coming out?).
After about 20 seconds, she was still doing the silent cry, so I handed her to Kevin to see if he could get her to settle down.
Next thing we knew, Claire went limp & her eyes glazed over.
We were screaming her name & got no response from her.
She wasn't breathing. She was turning gray.
It was the scariest moment of my life.
I thought we were going to lose her.
Kevin told me to call 911.
I remember saying "Jesus help her!"
I called 911 while Kevin took Claire to the front yard.
The 911 call was a blur...I remember walking upstairs while I was on the phone so that Kate wouldn't hear the call (she was still playing dress up while all of this was going on)
Part way through the call, I heard Kevin tell me that Claire came to and was breathing & responsive.
A few minutes later the fire truck & ambulance arrived.
(I was seriously impressed how fast they came!)
We were in the front yard waiting for them & we all went inside for them to check out Claire.
At this point she was responsive & alert.
They checked her for a concussion, check her eyes, palpated her, and did a bunch of other stuff to make sure she was okay.
It was all a blur....I just remember counting 7 firemen/paramedics in my house.
Then Claire starts batting her eye lashes & flirting with the fire men. They got a kick out of that.
Kate remains unscathed from this event...she loved seeing the fire truck on our street.

What they think happened is that she got the wind knocked out of her when she landed on the step and because of the "silent cry" (not breathing) it caused her to pass out.
They reassured us that we did the right thing by calling 911.
They don't think it is a concussion, but gave us a list of things/behaviors to be aware of for the next 24 hours.
It was such a random freak accident.
Kids run & fall all the time.
Claire just happened to fall at the wrong spot & give us a big scare.
It was the scariest moment of my life.
I can't get the image out of my head of Kevin holding her while we screamed her name and her not responding. It was awful.
We are counting our blessings, Claire is fine and was back to her spunky self this evening.
This evening after dinner we played in the backyard.
Every laugh, every giggle and every funny thing Claire or Kate did seemed priceless and un-replaceable.
Life is precious & today I am thankful for that reminder.
Go hug your kids.

**Edited 8.6.10**
Turns out Claire has Breath Holding Syndrome and she will hopefully outgrow it by age 4.