A late night hospital visit and some exciting news :)

We had such a fright this week.  We were fast asleep and I woke up to the sound of choking on the monitor.  I ran in to Caitlin's room to find her gagging and choking and trying to cry out.  I scooped her up, lent her forward but she just kept choking and gagging.  Eventually, (it was probably just a few seconds but it felt like forever) bits of thick clear fluid started coming up and she was able to breathe again.  I soothed her, but started thinking, "Is it just her vomiting, or could it be the Chiari?"
I don't think I've talked about the Chiari Malformation before. Caitlin has it, like most babies with spina bifida,  It's were the cerebellum in the brain is pulled slightly downwards.  1 in 4 children with the malformation will display symptoms and one of the symptoms which would indicate that a child needs decompression surgery is if they have trouble breathing.  Every time I lay Caitlin back down she started choking again and I was really starting to panic.  Then I felt her fonatelle.  It was raised.   So what was it? Shunt failure? Vomiting? Chiari?  Shunt failure is bad enough but decompression surgery is major and dangerous surgery.  I knew we would have to take her to the hospital and by 3am we were being assessed.  Caitlin had vomited 5 times by this stage, and that made me think it was the shunt and she was choking on her vomit which was why she couldn't breathe properly - not because of the Chiari.  She had only had her shunt revised 2 weeks ago so surely it couldn't be blocked already?  A shunt series followed (x-rays and a ct scan).  Caitlin had to be sedated because she wouldn't sit still for the scan.  It was actually a blessing because she slept through it and continued to stay in a deep sleep until 9am which I was grateful for.
The neurosurgeon arrived and we braced our selves.  They told us the ct scan showed her ventricles were perfect and their was no blockage and the Chiari was okay too.  They suspected she had a virus.  A virus? That's fine, we can deal with a virus!  I was so happy!  We must be the only bunch of mums who are glad that their child has a virus but only because the alternative is so much worse.  Then Caitlin surprised us all when she woke up from her sleep, she was as happy as always, chatting and waving and absoutely fine!  I think when our kids get a common bug us sb mum's panic and think the worst, because we know all too well that vomiting might not just mean a bug but can mean our child needs surgery.  I was on tenderhooks that night and we were all exhausted from having such little sleep the night before.  But Caitlin slept through (minus a little cry for a few minutes at 11pm) and woke up this morning fresh, bright with a smile on her face.

Best of all, something very exciting started to happen this week :)  My determined little girl started crawling!  She's been up on all fours for a while now, but not confident enough to start moving.  But this week she just wanted her toy and she crawled towards it!  Then at her Granny's she wanted her book and crawled across the room to it :)  She's not crawling fast across the room yet and it tires her out but I can see the fierce determination in her when she wants to do it and she has.

Going for  it...

Got it!!

My cutie pie.