The worst moment of my life

kellydel wrote: I am a newbie here and don't really know anyone yet, but I needed to share what happened to my baby and its still really hard to talk about aloud. First of all, he's fine now (and sleeping peacefully in his bed). Yesterday morning, about 5am, my husband, Mike, got up to get ready for work -he works three 12hr shifts a week and has to be to work at 6. Our youngest baby, Wyatt, who is almost 6 months old and very plump, happy and healthy, sleeps in a bassinet in our room. Mike always puts a gentle hand on him to check him every morning as he did yesterday, but yesterday he didn't feel him breathing and he was cool to the touch. Mike shouted for me to wake up as he pulled him out of the bassinet essentially by his feet. I jumped out of bed and saw him carrying a very limp baby to our bed (an image that will be forever burned in my mind). Mike sat him up on our bed while I fumbled with the light...I was shaking and had a hard time getting it on, but finally did. We talked and cajoled Wyatt to wake up and rubbed his body and his eyes finally started opening...very slowly and disjointedly- which is very unusual for him, he usually pops awake smiling. I truly believe that had it been almost any other day or if my husband had gotten up on time (he was 10 minutes late) that my baby might not be here today. I thank God constantly that things happened the way they did and that my precious little one is ok. We ended up not taking him to the ER- because we know there is no known cause for SIDS, they would have checked him, said he was fine now and sent us home. But we did go out and buy a movement sensor/monitor (that took us 4hrs and 6 stores to find) so that we might (eventually) have some peace of mind. If anyone has any other ideas of how we can protect our baby, please let me know. BTW- neither of us smoke and he is exclusively breastfed, so we don't have those risk factors for SIDS.
Thanks for letting me share.

mckayleesmom replied: Honey....I would take him to his ped immediatly. You might think it was almost a SID's case, but there are a number of other reasons this could have happened...A heart murmor, sleep apnea...etc. I I urge you to take him in to make sure and have some test ran.

amynicole21 replied: Wow!! So scary I think I would still make an appt with your ped to check things out. Perhaps there is an issue with his airway or something I would really get him checked thoroughly. I am SO glad everything was ok.

cameragirl21 replied: Welcome, Kelly, and thank God your baby is ok. Luckily your dh checked him just in time.
As for SIDS, one thing I've always heard is that putting a baby to sleep on his back lowers the risk.
Take care,
Jennifer

kellydel replied: I am planning to take him to his ped first thing tomorrow.
I also do put him down on his back, but he tends to flip or sleep on his side.
Thanks for your ideas

mckayleesmom replied:
If he is starting to flip from side to side...then it is probably time to take him out of the basinett and put in into something bigger......I kept my son in a long time also...and then took him out once he started turning. They can turn and get their faces stuck on the sides and suffocate themselves..

mckayleesmom replied: Also..they make those little things that slide onto the side of the beds...so you can co-sleep or have his crib in the room.

C&K*s Mommie replied: to the Parenting Club boards. Sorry to know you introduction here, was for a sad reason.

One Step Ahead has great products that offer safety for our littlest ones. One of which Mckayleesmom has mentioned about the co-sleeping beds that attach to your bed.

Kirstenmumof3 replied: I am so glad to hear that your baby is okay, but I still urge you to bring him to the ER or to see your peadiatricain right away. There are many other reasons for a baby to stop breathing other than SIDS. I also agree that he may be getting to big for his bassinette and it might be time to put him into a crib. Hope all continues to go well, sorry your intro to the board had to be so scary!

luvmykids replied: I can't tell you how glad I am that you're taking him to his doctor, my son had an episode very similar and had to be on a monitor for several months. For the first few days I thought it was an overreaction to have him hooked up but once the alarm beeped I was so thankful to have the monitor, it was the dead of night and I never would have woken up otherwise. I'm glad he seems ok now but KUP after the doctor.

A&A'smommy replied: oh how scary!!!

mom2my2cuties replied: How scary!

You should definately take him into the ER..Which is what your ped will tell you as well generally. Something to know, your doctor wont be able to run a lot of tests in office, and if you take the baby into the ER, then they have all the equipment and staff at thier disposal to do the appropriate testing.

amymom replied: I would definetely talk to the ped today, not wait until tomorrow. They might want to put him on a monitor more than the one you got. The do have monitors that can be used at home like Monica alluded to, they are similar to what they use in hospitals and hook to heart rate, etc.

CantWait replied: Welcome to Parenting Club. I'm sorry your unfortunate circumstance brought you here, but glad to hear that your baby is well now.

kellydel replied: Wow...thanks for all the responses...
we did talk to his ped. right away- at least the on-call PA -who really didn't tell us much except that we could take him to the ER.
Also my DH is a respiratory therapist and a nursing student - he did a check to make sure there was nothing going on with his heart - I know he's not a Doc but he's had a lot of experience with abnormal heart and breathing rates.
We are in the process of switching him to a regular crib- its sitting in our living room waiting for DH to have time to put it up.
I will definetly ask ped about the other monitor... something that tracks his heartbeat would be great, i'd be sure to get more sleep.

Hillbilly Housewife replied:
FYI - and an important one... when a baby passes away from SIDS...there is NOTHING you can do about it. The child will pass away no matter what you do. My aunt's baby died from SIDS, and he wasn't even sleeping. He just started turning blue, couldn't breathe. CPR was performed on the baby, an ambulance was called, and CPR was continued until they got to the hospital... even at the hospital, they continued CPR but the baby couldn't be revived.

Autopsy was performed...and it was declared SIDS.

No matter what type of device you have...whether you smoke or not, or whether the baby sleeps on it's back or its front... if SIDS happens, SIDS happens.

I'm sorry your baby had an episode... I'd get it checked.

mommyofpremitwins replied: Welcome I am very new here also. How old is the baby? I'm glad everything is fine now but yes take him to the doctor to get some type of testing done.

ashtonsmama replied: OMG

I would be hysterical.


DEFINITELY get him checked out by his pediatrician, that's a really serious and scary thing to deal with, and I wouldn't want to mess around or waste any time waiting to see if it happens again, know what I mean? Good luck, and keep us posted.

How scary.

ashtonsmama replied:
I think she said up top in her original post that he's almost 6 months?

jcc64 replied: I see this is a post from yesterday- but I'm hoping by now you've been to the dr. I wouldn't presume sids or anything else w/o taking him to the dr or ER. Let us know, best of luck

mom2my2cuties replied: I hope everything is ok with your little one. I was thinking about this last night as I tried to put my gal to bed.

Let us know how he is doing!

MyBabeMaddie replied: OMG! That is so scary I couldn't imagine what went through your head when that happens! I hope everything checks out ok!

holley79 replied: That is very scary. I'm sorry that happened. I hope you do follow ups with your actual pedi. I would make sure and make an appointment with the Pedi itself.

BTW, Welcome to PC.

kellydel replied: Update:
We took Wyatt in to see his Ped yesterday. She checked him out, said everything sounded good, he looks great and happy and healthy. She doesn't think this was an actual SIDS episode, he's out of the riskiest age, doesn't have any other risk factors etc. She thinks that now that he's about 6 mos he's started sleeping deeper- entering stage 4 sleep cycle and that thats what my DH caught him in and he was just slow to react and arouse himself fully. But since he wasn't blue or have any gasping breaths it probably wasn't an episode.

Sorta makes me feel better, but it was very scary, so we're keeping the monitor for peace of mind.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions!

amynicole21 replied: I'm glad you got him checked out and that everything looks good.