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8.01.2010

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.

35 comments:

  1. Phew! You just knocked the wind out of ME with that post! I got so worried and scared when reading that and am so thankful Claire is okay! Thank the Lord!

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  2. OMG! Scary!! My heart is beating a mile a minute right now. So glad everything turned out OK! Can't wait to LOVE on her (and you) in ONE WEEK! XO

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  3. I am in tears and want so much to give you, and Kevin a hug. I love you mama!

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  4. Oh my gosh, how SCARY.

    You're right. Life IS precious. And I'm so thankful that this story had a happy ending!!!

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  5. Oh my goodness! I am so glad she is okay!

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  6. That is so scary, so glad everything ended up fine!

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  7. OMG, that is so scary! And I so happy she is doing better.

    Thankful she is back to herself and you guys had a fun night playing in the yard! Life is precious!

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  8. My heart is beating so fast now, I cannot not imagine how scared you must have been. Thank God she is okay! I'm going to hug my napping baby girl right now! Life is soooo precious!

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  9. That is so scary! I can't even imagine. Thank goodness she's ok!

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  10. My goodness, your posts are quite emotional these days. It's crazy how the new depths of love in having a child also puts us at greater risks of pain. Thank you for the sweet reminder of life.

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  11. pheewwwww!!!! my word, thank God for beautiful little Claire!!!! Geez, that would take me a few months to recover!!!! i thought chopping off my finger was bad!!!! My heart goes out to you girl, big hug and kiss!!!! <3

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  12. Seeing your child unable to breath is the scariest thing in the world. I just did my make up and now I am going to have to do a few touch ups because of the big tears flowing down my face. Life is precious. So glad that Claire is OK!

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  13. I have tears! I am SO glad that she is OK. Things can happen so fast...so scary.

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  14. Oh Mel, I am so sorry to hear this story!! How scary! The same exact thing happened to my niece over Christmas break this past year. They actually wanted to take her to the hospital once she woke up but the ambulance didn't have a car seat so her parents had to drive her.

    I am so glad she is okay!

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  15. oh, tears.
    praise the Lord that she is ok. what a scary moment.
    you're right that we really do have to cherish every single moment.
    thank you for sharing and encouraging others to do the same.

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  16. Holy geez, Mel. I have tears in my eyes. I skimmed that email so fast to get to the part where she was okay. SO happy everything is okay. So scary.

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  17. Oh Dear Lord I cannot imagine!! Just yesterday in Sam's Addi got choked REALLY BAD and turned purple! Thank GOD Scott was with me because I freaked out. It was at least 30 seconds of her turning red, redder and purple before she got a breath! There were tears, snot, spit and crackers all over us, but we didn't care. I was screaming for help and guess what...not one person came to us...not one! Oh those moments are just the worst! My heart was still racing an hour later! I had chills reading this post. I am so thankful she is okay!!!!

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  18. ...held my breath through the whole post...{whew}... thank you Jesus for the miracle of Life...

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  19. I cried all the way through this post....
    I am SO so very glad she is ok.
    Life is definitely so very precious!

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  20. Ahhhh seriously... this post made me teary!!! SO thankful your sweet Claire is okay... praise the Lord!

    Funny thing is Emma has done this before... fell, silent cry, passing out. I started screaming for Travis to help me...and by the time he ran to me she had came too. Seriously it is the WORST feeling in the world.

    Glad everybody is doing good... hug those babies and love on them :)

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  21. Thanks for sharing this. So glad Claire is ok. I cannot imagine what you felt. My heart was wrenching just reading the words. I am going to give my girls extra hugs and kisses...

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  22. Woweee.. what a crazy time. My mommy's heart is beating fast as I read this..
    So happy things worked out and she is doing ok.

    Blessings

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  23. I felt my own heart stop just reading your story! Thank goodness she is okay!! What a scare!

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  24. Oh my gosh, how scary!!! My palms got all sweaty reading this. So glad she's ok!

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  25. OMG, I started tearing up just reading this, I can't imagine what you went through! So glad little Claire ended up being okay!!

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  26. So, so scary! Thanks for sharing your story...life is so precious and we all need reminders. So thankful your little one is okay!

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  27. Oh Mel how scary!!!!! I am crying as I read this. I am so glad that Claire is okay. I can not imagine how frightening that would be. Can. NOt. Imagine.

    Big hugs to you my friend. Thanks for the reminder of how precious life is. I'm off to play with my kids.

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  28. oh goodness mel!! thank God that was all that it was! and i'm so thankful that the paramedics were able to explain it to you and kevin to help put your worries to rest. hugs and kisses to your whole family!!!

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  29. Oh my gosh, that is SO scary!! I'm so glad she's OK. What a crazy thing to happen. And poor mom & dad. Did you pour an extra large glass of wine that night?? :)

    ~Keri

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  30. Ok, I am broken out in a full sweat. The same thing happened to my sister when she was about Claire's age, and I totally remember my mom acting the exact same way. Thank. God.

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  31. AHHHHHH! Freaky! Jordis holds her breath for a LONG time and I know has been moments from a pass out. So scary. Glad she is okay. Yikes.

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  32. So scary! I'm so glad she is okay! Poor little Claire. Poor Mommy! We had our first ER visit last weekend which was scary enough- I can't imagine a 911 call. Yikes!

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  33. OMG!!! I am totally crying here. Just reading it totally scared me and I haven't even met you guys! I can only imagine how scary that must have been. I am so glad everything turned out okay and am sorry you had such an awful and scary experience!

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  34. I have chill bumps and tears in my eyes reading your post because this could happen to any of us. I know you were beyond terrified and I am so thankful that she is okay, God was looking out for her. Hugs to you, I know your nerves are probably shot. My heart goes out to you. I couldn't imagine.

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  35. This is my first visit to your blog. I have tears in my eyes and am totally choked up. I cannot imagine how scary that must have been. With that, I am going to get off blogs (I'll have to come back later) and go sit on the floor with my kiddos. :)

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