What a 1st Birthday for our Little Mia

We have a lot to update everyone on but first we hope everyone had a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving and wanted to say Happy Birthday one more time to Mia, who turned one last Friday. Meg, Mia, and I drove down to New York on Thursday morning to spend Thanksgiving at the Bruckmann's with a lot of Megan's family members. It was so nice to see everyone and for them to get to spend some quality time with Mia, little did we know she was beginning to show signs of a virus that would catch up with her the following day. Mia was a little cranky in NY and we did give her some tylenol for what we thought was a fever caused by her teething, and on the ride back on Friday she was just not accepting the fact that she was exhausted and tried to stay awake for the ride home.

When we got back to Watertown Friday afternoon it was clear Mia was not herself as she fell asleep on my chest for the first time in months and just didn't want to eat or drink as much as usual. Aunt Eli gave Mia a bath before bed and got scared when it seemed like Mia just forgot where she was and started to fall backwards in her tub, thankfully Liz caught her and she seemed ok after, just cold when she took her out to dry her off and get her dressed for bed. We gave her some tylenol and checked her temp which went from 100.6 down to 100.0 over 3 checks while we ate dinner so we thought the Tylenol was doing its job.

After dinner Meg's parents headed to their hotel and Liz & Nicolai went downstairs for bed as Meg and I relaxed in the living room before heading to bed ourselves. Minutes after we sat down and I said to Meg how great it was that we made it a year, and Meg said how proud she was, we heard a ruffling on the monitor that was not the normal Mia movement or rolling around we had heard before. We ran upstairs and when we turned on the light we could see Mia shaking in all 4 limbs and when Meg picked her up we noticed she had some spit drooling out of her mouth and was very limp. Meg handed her to me and she would not respond (although she was clearly breathing) to me patting her on the back or calling her name. Meg called 911 while I continued to talk to Mia on our bed now where she started to get some control back and was not as limp. I went to change her diaper and check her temp and before I could finish the paramedics were in her room asking us to explain what happened. We were not positive, but most agreed she had indeed suffered a febrile seizure (I had 3 when I was young too) and that we should get her to the hospital to be examined. Meg hopped in the ambulance with Mia and I drove with Liz & Nicolai to Children's Hospital once Meg called to tell us they were no longer going to take her to Mt. Auburn Hospital.

Mia was in the hospital from just before 11pm until 3am and was not too happy at all as she was constantly being woken up by the nurses and doctors to check her lungs, pulse and to monitor her temperature. It was confirmed that she had a febrile seizure, caused by her fever spiking over a short period of time, and that this is a common occurrence (something the doctor said he sees twice a night). They put Mia on Tylenol and staggered that with Motrin and after 4 hours her temperature had broken and she was released. We continued to monitor her temperature that night and the last couple days and it looks like we finally have everything under control and she is in the final stages of this virus we believe is called Roseola.

The doctors said we should go ahead with Mia's 1st birthday party the following day so long as she continues to improve, which she did, and although we were all pretty exhausted it turned out to be a wonderful day and we now know how much our daughter loves Birthday Cake. Thank you to Aunt Eli and Nola for two great cakes. Mia was definitely showing signs of getting back to normal and enjoyed opening her new gifts, actually she enjoyed playing with the tissue paper the most. We had a lot of help from our family and friends setting up, during, and cleaning after the party and don't know how we could have done it with each and everyone of you, so thank you all.

We had a relaxing Sunday with Mia and today she had her 1 year checkup with Dr. Shirley which worked out well since we were going to update her today anyway. She reconfirmed everything we learned at the Hospital and that we will need to keep a close eye on her and give her Tylenol and Motrin anytime her temperature starts to go up at all. Other than that, Mia was given a gold star for her development and she is now 29 3/4" tall and weighs 20lbs. 4oz. (which we imagine was higher before she got sick). We are now off the bottle and only using a sippy cup as we transition from formula to Whole Milk by adding more and more milk to each serving of formula she gets over the next week or two. Other milestones we have seen or heard from Mia recently include her saying Mama and Dada when she actually should and starting to say doggie when she sees Docket too. She tries to tell us she is One by holding her finger up, but it is usually 2 or 3 at this point. She generally loves taking baths, walking around the house holding on to the walls and furniture or in her walker, and we have yet to find a food she really didn't like so we are lucky there as well, fingers crossed.

Sorry for the long and winded update or if I left anything out, but I wanted to get everyone updated and if anyone has any questions about febrile seizures and warning signs feel free to call or email Meg or me. Happy Holidays to everyone and we hope to see everyone in December or early in the New Year.