Fright of my Life

Asha is two weeks old. On Thursday night she (and I) had our very first ambulance ride. Not exactly what I wanted to do on a Thursday night. We were in the process of trying to wake her for an evening feed so she was lying asleep on the rug. All of a sudden she vomited. Not unusual for a baby you think. True. It was a spectacular vomit, even coming out of her nose. We were grossed out and leapt for the spit rag. Only to look back and realise "She's not breathing".

Talk about frightening. I was terrified. She had choked on the vomit and couldn't clear it. She was spitting out mucus and then gagging/choking on it. As soon as I realised that it wasn't something that was going to quickly resolve itself, I got Terry to call the ambos. He stayed on the phone to them, while mum and I kept trying to clear Asha's airways and get her to breath. If she cries she can breath, so making her cry was a relief. Once the ambos got there they suctioned her out and then took her and I into the kids hospital. The doctors checked her out but by the time they saw her she was really asleep and settled so they weren't too worried about her. However with her having tracheomalacia (floppy airways) this choking episode has made me more worried about her from a SIDS point of view. But we took her home and since she had cried herself ragged, put her to bed and she slept for another few hours.

The next day she did it again which completely horrified me, but it was resolved much more quickly thankfully.

Honestly I have never known a more frightening thing. The only other thing in my life comparable was the car accident I had and the 2 times Terry has had a cardiac trip and ended up in hospital. The thought of losing this precious bundle, which could have happened to easily, is just to gut wrenching to bear.