Part 2: The night we could've lost Brody

Read Part 1 first.

A few days after this nightmare.

Klay lays Brody on the floor in our living room. I swipe my phone, mistyping my password twice, forgetting about the emergency feature on the iphone. My heart is beating fast; thoughts racing in my head. Everything was fine. His temperature was high. Is it a seizure? He's not shaking. No, he's not shaking. 

Tears pour down my face as I begin to take in the reality of what's happening. I dial 911. It rings for what seems like an eternity. I start screaming before they answer.

10:13 p.m.

Dispatcher: "911, what is your emergency?"

Me: "My son, my son... he is unresponsive... he was running a fever today. He's almost 2, he's 22 months and he's not responding to us... He's 22 months. He's not 2. He's not responding to us. Get someone here!" I said as I ramble off my address.

I remember getting caught up on how old he was, saying the wrong age the whole time.

Dispatcher: "Ma'am I need you to calm down so I can understand you."

HOLY SHIT WOMAN. Seriously!? I said it plain as day, I thought as I tried to collect myself to repeat the address. Ok, pull it together, don't be one of those frantic people on the 911 tapes who can't calm down. I breathe in and out.

I'm on my knees a few feet from my nearly two-year-old son staring at his tiny body. He's much smaller than an average kid at this age; only in the 25th percentile. He was wearing a size 2T green Mavericks t-shirt that was too big for him. His pajama pants don't match his shirt. I rock back and forth staring talking to Brody and the dispatcher.

He wasn't moving, he wasn't shaking, he wasn't blinking, he was still--he just stared. There was no light behind his pretty blue eyes. He was fading.

Back to me being the crazy 911-caller...

I'm screaming, "You have to get someone here!"

Dispatcher: "Someone is on their way. What happened today? He was running fever? Is he shaking?"

"Yes he ran fever... It was 103.1... I gave him Motrin and he's not responding... he's just looking up. He's not moving. He's not moving. Oh, God...," I say turning my attention back to Brody.

"Brody, Brody it's mama. Brody! Get someone here now." I cry out.

Dispatcher: "We have someone on their way, OK? Just try to stay calm. Is he breathing?"

Klay is talking to him and trying to see if he's breathing. And then, things take a turn for the worst.

His color began to change; he turns blue.

I've never seen someone turn blue in my life. His lips were the first sign he stopped breathing. Then his whole face and body started to change a bluish-purple I'd only seen in movies.

Klay: "Oh my God, Brody, Brody, buddy. NO, NO, NO. Brody! He's blue!"

Me: "Oh my God, he's turning blue," I sob. "He's not breathing, you have to hurry. He's blue. Why can't I hear you? They aren't coming, they aren't coming... Why I can't hear youuuuuu..." I cry out.

I should hear sirens, it's been at least 10 minutes...

I hysterically rock back and forth, not believing what I'm seeing. How is this happening? 

While I'm the crazy, inconsolable, panicking mother, Klay is being a savior.

THERE IS A REASON WHY I MARRIED THIS MAN. But that night he showed me just how strong and how reactive he is. Klay is a problem solver and a quick thinker. I'm on my knees distraught, but this man turns Brody on his side and starts patting his back, patting and patting. He's doing something. I'm just a sobbing mom kneeling a few feet away... paralyzed.

"C'mon Brody. C'mon," Klay says.

Pat, pat, pat, pat.

Brody throws up.

"He threw up, he's coughing," I said into the phone. "Brody. Brody. Brody? It's mama."

I hear the dispatcher talking on the radio to someone, clearly not me.

Klay and I continue to talking to him as the dispatcher tries to talk to us to see what's happening. I put her on speaker, so Klay can listen to her instructions (now, she wants to give me directions or maybe I was too hysterical to give directions to).

I pick up the dogs and toss them into our bedroom slamming the door. I knew the paramedics would arrive soon and we wouldn't have time to tend to the dogs. I open the front door and the cool, icy air whisked threw the house. I finally hear the faint sound of sirens.

I'm still holding my phone trying to direct Klay on what to do, but when I move I accidentally hit the 'END' button. OMG, seriously? Stupid touch phone. WTF.

I wait for them to call me back and nothing. Finally I call again, they transfer me and then I'm talking some more.

"Ok, he's coughing," I say to the dispatcher. "But he's not looking at us. Brody, look at mama, Brody it's mama. Brody, baby, it's mama."

I see the bright red and blue lights flashing through our open front door. A police officer bursts into the house. Loud and clearly in a hurry. His urgency made me think he knew this was a child. Keys and tools jingling at his waist as he kneels on the floor to assess Brody.

"He stopped breathing and threw up," Klay points to the rug showing the officer where it was.

Klay starts to tell the officer what happened. Dispatch asked if the officer needed them to remain on the line for medical instructions; the officer said no so we hung up--this time on purpose. Since Brody was breathing there wasn't anything we could do but wait for the paramedics.

Meanwhile, Klay looks at the throw up to see if there were any items in it that may of choked him. Nothing was there, besides some dark forest green strands of goo. I now think this is what blocked his airway--drainage from the previous weeks.

Brody's body starts to shiver. It's actually more like a jerk rather than a shake, but it looks like he's cold, not seizure-like.

The cop asks if he's ever done this before, meaning the jerking motion.

"No, never." I say.

The cold air is flowing through the house giving us all a bit of a chill. About six or seven Forney firemen suddenly jog into the house.

All of them asking questions:

"What happened?"
"He was running fever?"
"Has he ever done this before?"
"Has he ever shaken like this before?"
"Does he ever not respond to your voice like that?"

Klay and I answer as best as we can. They explain that it's common in febrile seizures (caused by a sudden spike in fever) to be disoriented after an episode. "It usually takes some time until they snap out of it," one of them says.

10:37 p.m.

Twenty-four minutes later, the paramedics arrive. They walk in, kneel down and I give them some space. They encourage me to keep talking to Brody to see if he will react.

"He's breathing so there isn't much we can do. If it was a seizure, it will take him a bit to return back to his normal state," one of them says.

Just an hour ago, I was enjoying cooking a homemade dinner with my son. It was just the three of us. Now, we're surrounded by ten or more men with my little boy on the floor still not responding--voices, men moving about the room, the blue and red lights that still shined through the open front door--but he remained unaware of it all.

I just wanted my vivacious little Brody back.

The officer asks Klay to stand and talk to him re-explain what happened. Klay is now in Brody's eyeline. Brody is still staring up toward the ceiling, but if he were to move his eyes down just a bit he would be able to see his dad. His eyes were moving but never landing on anything, just swaying side to side gazing at the ceiling. He doesn't look like he's actually looking at anything. He doesn't turn his head toward my voice even though I'm near his ears talking to him.

Then I heard the sweetest sound... a sound, a voice, and a moment that will forever be etched in my memory...

"Da da?"

Little did I know this roller coaster ride was far from over...

Click here for Part 3.

Part 1: The night we could've lost Brody

When you're a parent, you hope and pray for the best for your child. You don't imagine becoming a news story or a tragedy-stricken family, so instead you let go of being the overly cautious I-have-to-take-my-kid-to-the-doctor-cause-he-sneezes-parent and ease up on worrying about your kids in certain places or certain situations.

I think that's natural. I can't count how many times my child runs into things and hits his "nog nog," as my husband calls it, and I think one day this kid is going to bust his head open or cause some permanent damage.

You can try to prevent these things all day--and yes, the thought of making your son wear a safety helmet crosses your mind at each kerplunk!--but then you think that's a little much, right? Or is it? At what length would you go to protect your child?

Napping earlier that day.

Let me start this story by clearing things up a bit. No, we've never made Brody wear a helmet just cause he's bumped his head more times than I can count. And no, he's never had a concussion. But we HAVE joked about how all these bumps and bruises may affect him one day. Honestly, sometimes I feel like Brody is Billy Bob from "Varsity Blues" or in "Not Another Teen Movie" and he only has X number of times left where he can hit his head without causing a major damage.

So this post isn't about Brody hitting his head; it's about a night that I'll never forget and that will forever make me a crazy, cautious mom that takes their kid to the doctor when her child runs a slight fever. I will forever going to be 'that mom'.

It all started on Friday, Nov. 22, 2013.

 I'd been at home all day with Brody cooking some Thanksgiving goodies. I was making a turkey, homemade cornbread and homemade dressing to help with our family Thanksgiving at my g-ma's that Sunday. I noticed Brody felt warm around 5-6 p.m., took his temp and it was 100.7. I gave him Tylenol and it went back to normalish. Despite having a cough, he'd been acting more than his usual rambunctious self.

BUT, he had been coughing for two weeks.

OK, OK hold the judgements, folks. I know what you're thinking... Why the hell didn't you take him to the doctor?

Two weeks prior, he'd had strep throat and ran 103+ fever. He was given an antibiotic shot, clearing up his strep but started running fever again only two days later due to a newly-developed ear infection. He had a cough and we had made four trips to the doctor in a week and a half. With the weather changing and allergies, the doctors said he sounded clear in his chest, but to monitor it.

The cough would come and go. He may not cough all day for a few days, and then it would start up again. It really varied and it never sounded like he was congested, until the Friday before this horrific night. Here's a video of how rambunctious he is and how clumsy. This is from the night before...


So, Brody played and acted normal all day and the day before the episode. As a matter of fact, he was better than normal and was more playful then he had been in weeks. He did take a nap though--in the middle of the day--so I knew he didn't feel good and was extremely tired. This boy hardly naps any more.

Making homemade cornbread.

When Klay got home from work, I started to make the homemade cornbread and enlisted in some help from my lil' chef. Brody was still doing ok, playing and happy as ever. Nothing seemed odd or off. He helped me pour, stir and pour again. This kid loves to cook!

Around 9 p.m., Brody started to get tired. Soon after, his fever started to rise and was at 100ish. It wasn't quite time to give Brody more medicine yet, so we continuously checked his temp in the meantime.

I was trying to figure out where he was going to sleep. We'd had a strict 'no kid' policy when it came to our bed, or at least we tried to. Brody has slept in our bed before, at various stages, but we never made it a routine. When he's been sick, we've had the pack-n-play out and laid him in that, which stayed in our room or I camped out with him on the couch, but we just moved it out of the house. So as all this was going on, I was trying to decide if he would sleep with us or if one of us sleep on the couch with him. At this point it had been low-grade fever so I even contemplated putting him in his room instead of with us.

Around 10 o'clock, I gave Brody some Motrin. He was whining and couldn't get comfortable on the couch. I held him while Klay checked his temperature again. This time it was at 103.1.

I laid Brody down on the couch and then got up to get a wet rag, and when I was coming back Klay was talking to Brody. It was dark in the living room and Brody was laying flat on his back staring at the ceiling.

I sat down next to Brody's head on the couch (Brody was wedged between us; Brody facing Klay). It was dark, so I couldn't quite see Brody's face.

"Brooody. Hey, bud," he said touching his head.

"Brody. Hey, Brody. Brody... Brody... Brody!" Klay yelled.

"Oh my God, Cass, Cass! Call 911 or get in the car!"

My heart started pounding from the urgency in Klay's voice. I snatched my phone and turned on the light and swung around to look at Klay who is now standing and picking up Brody.

Brody's head falls by Klay's shoulder and arm, and then away from Klay when Klay tries to get a better look at him.

Brody's eyes rolled up toward his forehead; Klay supported his head with his hand.

His arms and legs dangled. The rest of his body went limp.

We yelled and said his name, but got nothing--just a blank stare with no signs of our sweet boy behind it.

He was unresponsive.

That's when I could see why Klay reacted as he did.

My son looked as if he was no longer in his body. 

He was lifeless.

Click here to read Part 2.

Brody & Swayze's Circus Birthday Extravaganza

I can't believe my handsome little guy turned two this weekend. It makes me sad that he's getting big so fast. It feels like yesterday Brody was in my tummy karate chopping my bladder, I was rapping about baby constipation in hopes of him poo-ing (for those of you who've been blessed to hear my baby raps), and throwing up in Walmart parking lot from locking him in the car and having to call the fire department... ahhh the memories.

Seriously though, I miss the days when he would just sleep on my chest, coo and smile at the sound of my voice--moments I'll cherish forever.

OK, I'll snap out of it and get to the party (cough) bitching, I mean planning...

So, I started thinking about his birthday bash long before the holidays. I tried to get some ideas for party themes to decide if I wanted to throw a big party like his first birthday (see Lumberjack birthday shindig here). There is so much planning that goes into these over-the-top parties we throw, and I have to make sure mom, who is our secret weapon, has plenty of time to draw, paint etc.

I wish I could say planning these parties is all rainbows and sunshine, but it's a pain in my rear.

Anyway, at the beginning of the year, Swayze, my youngest niece, turned one. Since it was on the heels of the holidays, my sister and I thought it would be a good idea to throw a joint party early February. Due to some arising issues and what seemed to be a Welch family sickness outbreak, we had to postpone to the 22nd.

This is where the fun--and frustration--began. After our initial talks and countless texts, we ultimately landed on a circus theme. Both of the kids love "Madagascar 3" and love watching Alex and the gang start the Afro Circus, so we thought it would be a fun to throw a crazy circus extravaganza. And, with my mom's artistic skills, I knew we could go to work.

Inspired by Pinterest, we decided on the things we wanted to do for the party.

Must haves, included:

• Big Top letters and Curtains
• Giant Popcorn Boxes with balloons
• Chalkboard Signs for Food
• Madagascar Art
• Step Right Up Signage
• Awesome games & circus food

When it came down to the nitty gritty the week of, it was pure chaos and a never-ending five day headache (for me); seriously I've never had sinus pain like this before in my life. I felt terrible all week.

One note to take away from this: If you start decorating two days before the party, you may have over done it. Well, we over did it. Go figure.

We started decorating Thursday and the party wasn't till Saturday. It just felt like this wasn't quite coming together the way it should. I think that all comes with throwing a joint party. We all have different visions of what we want it to look like. We bought different stuff at different places, and weren't sure how to bring it all together.

We were having the party in the garage and on the driveway due to nice weather. This was our first official shindig in the garage so we weren't quite sure on how it would pan out.

We felt it was necessary to cover every wall and we did. A lot of time was spent thinking about where to put what. We took things down several times and moved stuff around because we weren't happy with it. 

By Friday, we were ready to get stuff up and leave it.  With our "no one will notice it but us attitude" we were over this party. We knew we were tired and ready for the fat lady to sing so we could pack up our crap and ska-daddle.

By 6 o'clock, we remembered we had to map out where the games were going to go and what all games to use. Luckily my sister had borrowed an ample amount of games from work, which took some stress away and saved us money. We used sidewalk chalk as game signage. It was easy and pretty! We didn't leave until almost midnight though. And we needed to be back early the next day. I got lucky with my MIL who kept Brody for us Friday night.

Needless to say after all the stress and work put into the party, I was due a glass of wine. Hell, who am I kidding? I needed the whole bottle. It was exhausting. 

So let's start with what party-goers saw when they arrived to the party: 

We were lucky (and thankful) to be able to borrow the most of the games and strands of pennants. We had more than this, but only but up what we had room for. It really made the party more festive.

Afro Circus decor included solid wrapping paper from Dollar General and of course artwork by our mom. This was our favorite wall! We added the tickets to add a more 3-D effect!

The draping of material was done by my Mom. She tied together several layers of material we had from a previous party to get the "swooped look." The "Big Top" letters were nailed in to wood surrounding the garage.

The red and white stripes on the wall is actually wrapping paper found at Dollar Tree. The yellow on the table is also wrapping paper from Dollar General.

Table cloths turned into curtains.

Madagascar 3 Art by my mom

Prize table w/ bean bag toss games.

Feed the fish game!

"The Blazing Chicken" Game. Toss rubber chickens through the rings of fire.

"Plinko"

Plinko fun!

Even the adults had fun!

Games, included:

• Bean Bag Toss
• Feed the Fish Bean Bag Toss
• The Blazing Chicken
• Crazy Clown Chalk Art
• Butt Scooter Races
• Make your own Balloon Animals
• Ring Toss
• Photo Booth

Cake TIME

Presley and Emma having some fun. These two are trouble together!

Polka Dot Wrapping Paper from the Dollar Tree.

Me and my longtime BFF, Stephanie, who's an awesome fashion blogger. Check her out!

Our Circus Family!

My men!

• "Step Right Up" signs - made by Mom
• Pennants - Borrowed
• Games - Borrowed
• Rings of Fire (The Blazing Chicken) - made by me
• Giant Popcorn Boxes - borrowed (art on front by mom)
• Striped Fabric - JoAnn's
• All other painted signs - made by Mom
• Popcorn Boxes - Terrell Trinity Concession Restaurant Supply
• Balloons - Dollar General
• Brody's The Greatest Show On Earth Shirt - Little Tree Tops Baby 
• Printed Graphics for candy table - Made by Tricia

All in all it was a pretty day for a party, and it turned out great. I need a massage, some liquor and a lot of sleep.

I foresee a party at Chuck-E-Cheeses next year or somewhere with less responsibility for the parents. Maybe I'll have Klay throw the party on his own...

Anything else you want to know about the party? Leave me a comment and ask!