Last Tuesday was Declan’s 4 month check up. Usually Kayleigh will send me a text when they’re finishing up to let me know how everything went. At around noon I hadn’t heard from Kayleigh so I sent her a message to see if they were done yet. Instead of replying, Kayleigh called me back and left a voicemail. When I had a chance I checked, and the voicemail just said something like, “Please call me back when you get this.”

This isn’t like Kayleigh, and really isn’t the kind of message anyone likes to get from a loved one, so I had to hold on tight to keep from jumping to some horrible conclusion. I called Kayleigh back and she said that there had been a problem when Declan got his shots. He screamed, and screamed, and screamed (just like every other baby who gets shots), and instead of tapering off and calming down, he just stopped all together. He stopped crying, he stopped moving, and he stopped breathing. You’ve probably seen kids do this when they’re really crying. That thing they do right after a long scream when they’re trying to catch their breath again. It sounds like it was like that, except instead of that long hiccuping breath at the end, he just stopped moving.

Of course the pediatrician was right there, and told Kayleigh to do just what we always did when Amelia used to get panicky. Kayleigh blew in his face and from what she told me he started breathing again, but immediately went to sleep (or you could say he passed out). The fact that he went to sleep made the Doctor a little nervous so she asked Kayleigh to stay in the office until he woke up. I’m not positive, but I’m pretty sure they were there for more than an hour. After he woke up Kayleigh called to let me know that the Pediatrician was concerned because Declan was looking a little pale when he woke up. She was going to call the Neurosurgeon and check in with them to find out if they needed to see Declan. I tried to stay at work a little longer after that, but was too stressed so I went home.

Once I got home I got to hear the whole story, and I found out that the Pediatrician was worried that Declan may have had a seizure. This was why she wanted to talk to the Neurosurgeon. We sat around wating for what felt like way too long wondering if we were going to need to pack up and make a trip to the emergency room, and then the phone finally rang. A nurse called to let us know that the two doctors had talked with each other and decided that it wasn’t a seizure. Declan is just an advanced little guy, and learned early to hold his breath until he passes out. As the title says, I’m pretty sure he was just messing with us. I can almost imagine him saying to himself, “This’ll show ’em to stick me with needles!”

While it was a scary time, at least we know Declan is healthy. Compared to Amelia (who was born 5 weeks early and was a tiny little thing) he’s a giant. He can already stand up for a few seconds if we put his arms on the coffee table. He acts like he’s about ready to start crawling any day now. Also, I got him to say Mama once, but he hasn’t repeated it since the one time. I’m sure he and his sister will be testing us many more times and giving us many more grey hairs, but I think we handled this test pretty well.