Breath-Holding Update

Just when we thought things were getting better with Ethan's breath-holding spells, they hit an all-time high last month. He'd been averaging just one or two every three weeks... and then he started teething again. It's the only explanation I have. With 8 teeth coming in at once, the teething was aggravating the problem. He was definitely more irritable and not sleeping as well and a sleep-deprived Ethan is much, much more likely to have a breath-holding spell when he gets frustrated. It got so bad that he was having one or two a night! The teeth are still coming in, but I think all of them have actually broke through the gums, so he's doing a lot better. We have finally had over a week with no episodes - just a small one at grandma's on Friday, but none since then.

Sometimes I forget what a foreign concept this is to other parents. I was about 5 minutes late to one of my stake YW meetings because he'd had a breath-holding spell just before I was ready to leave - Elisabeth was baby-sitting. The reactions from other parents always reminds me that this is not a normal occurrence in their house - their child not breathing, turning blue and rigid. It's just something we've had to get used to and I'm so grateful it's not anything worse. It can still be hard to watch, though. It is not a trained response and he doesn't have control over it, but he can sometimes tell when it's coming. He'll brace himself against a wall or get down on his hands and knees. It just breaks my heart to see him do that.

Yesterday, though, was a completely different story. I had my first real scare of a possible breath-holding spell in public. He's done it in church a couple times, but this time we were at Old Navy looking for a costume. I was trying to decide what I'd do if he had an attack - at this point he'd already been crying pretty hard off and on for a good 5 minutes. He cried almost the whole time we were in line and paying for the great deals I found (2 polo shirts, 1 long-sleeve shirt and a pair of jammies for under $10!). I could tell some of the other shoppers were getting irritated, but there wasn't really anything I could do. It wasn't until I put him in his carseat that I realized the crying wasn't stopping anytime soon and he seemed to be in a lot of pain. It finally donned on me that he was probably constipated. So no breath-holding spells, but there was a lot of snuggling once we got home and were able to give him something. Not that you really want to know, but everything passed just fine after that! Oh, the joys of motherhood.