Hopefully not the first of many.

Friday night was pretty eventful in our house. Well, it started out quite normally. We had dinner and I was playing with EJ while Ed did the dishes. EJ loves a new trick he learned...walking ON the couch. He cracks up when he does it and then crashes into the cushions. I discourage it as much as I can, but it really is quite cute. But not any more. EJ was laughing and bouncing around and then took an awkward bounce and went right of the edge of the couch. I caught the bottom half of him, but since he's so tall now, his little head hit the ground. He instantly started screaming and I scooped him up as fast as I could. When I put his head on my shoulder he instantly stopped crying. When I pulled him around to see if there was a bump, to my absolute horror, his body was limp and his eyes were closed. It appeared that he lost consciousness. I screamed or gasped and that got his attention enough to wake him up and he started crying again. After a few minutes he was settling down and drinking some milk.

I immediately called his pediatrician. I know from all of the baby books that if there is a bump to the head followed by passing out, it's protocol to bring them into the ER. And of course the dr told us to take him right in.

We got to the ER around 10 pm (the best Pedi-ER is about 45 mins away, and it was pouring so it took almost an hour). EJ had fallen asleep after only a few minutes of the ride. The nurses there were excellent, knowing exactly how to handle a 15-month who screamed the WHOLE time he was examined. They did an initial exam just to be sure there was no bleeding in his ears and that his eyes weren't dilated. EJ then calmed down when the nurses and intern left and we waited for the actual doctor. We were so worried he was going to need a CT scan. I'm sure many of you know the dangers of being exposed to so much radiation (80x that of an x-ray), especially with him being so small. And even worse, they would have to sedate him if they needed to do the scan. What a complete scary thought. I just felt so awful for my little guy. He was cold in his mini hospital gown (which was quite adorable) so I bundled him up under my sweatshirt. We felt so bad for him that we even let him hold the hospital's remote control, which made him so totally happy. LOL.

The doctor came in a few minutes later and checked him out. She was confident that he was just fine and didn't need the CT scan. Yeah!!!! She said she believes he had a breath-holding spell in which sometimes little ones get so upset they hold their breath and pass out. I've heard many parents say their kids did it so I know it's common. But still VERY scary.

So we packed him back up and headed home. We got in around midnight and we all slept like babies that night. I did set my alarm to wake him up at 4am per the dr's request. Just to be sure he was doing ok. EJ got up Saturday morning and was his normal cheerful self with no signs that anything happened...not even a bump on his head.

Big sighs of relief.