William Jeffery Bitzan was born February 24th, 2014 and instantaneously became my most favorite person in the whole world. Will has been full of personality and completely aware of himself and his surroundings from day one. He came out with a strong neck, lifting his head just minutes after his birth to see who was around. He quickly met his grandparents, aunts, and uncle on my side of the family and shortly there after the aunt, uncle and grandparents on dads side and he wanted to make sure he saw each and everyone of their faces. We were discharged from the hospital a day later and life with a child at home began. I enjoyed every minute I got to spend with him, even the 3-4 midnight feedings the first few weeks. I had taken 12 weeks off work and was going to make sure I got some good time in with Will before returning. Those 12 weeks flew and life became more and more routine. Around 9 weeks, Will started sleeping 8 hours through the night and was a playful, happy, silly baby boy during the day. I returned to work when Will was 11 weeks old and he decided this would be a great time to stop taking naps. I worked evening shift at a rehab hospital and my husband Nick, worked IT for a major medical device sales company, thus I was totally ok with a baby who slept through the night but refused midday naps.
Around 4 months Will started eating cereal with baby food and all those Puffs and Mum-Mumms, he loved bananas and sweet potatoes, squash and green beans were not far behind. He also developed a LOVE for music and Baby Einstein at this point, he would bop his head and giggle whenever he heard music and watch Baby Einstein's Number's Nursery so intently.
We weren't, and are not the parents that read and followed textbooks to help him develop (not that we don't appreciate those who chose that method) but we were the proud parents watching him grow and mold into the curious, mischievous little pre-toddler we have today.
Will started "army crawling" about 5 months and was all over the main floor of our home. By 6 months he was crawling as you would see any other baby do and he was FAST! He would be clear across our home in a matter of seconds. Around 8 months he was standing and walking along furniture, 10 months brought independent standing and 11 months we were "zombie walking"!!!! Will took his first steps 2/2/15, just shy of 11.5 months. He was saying words at this point such as, "momma", "dada", "ba" (ball), "baba" (bottle) and "bye" with a wave. His development was so on par and he made me the proudest momma daily.
2/9/15 Will came down with a fever at daycare and was sent home. I made him an appointment the next morning at his pediatricians office and managed his fever as best I could at home with Ibuprophen, cool washcloths and lots of snuggles. Will fell asleep in my arms about 7pm, almost a full hour and a half before normal, I thought not much of it as he wasn't feeling well. However, something inside me told me not to put him in his bed. Will's dad, Nick was upstairs in his office working so I laid Will next to me in our bed and started watching some TV and checking facebook and email on my phone. Nick came down about 8:15pm and said he'd lay Will in his bed, I said nope, something just isn't quite right. (Will had experienced 2 ear infections and a stomach virus previous to this so it wasn't me being crazy, I was fairly used to a sick child) We took his temp and he was 100.1F but had received Ibuprophen not long before so Nick laid down with us. Not 2 min after Nick climbed in bed, Will let out this loud, strong, cry/ gasp for air and his little body was ridged. I threw my phone and jumped out of bed while Nick exclaimed, "whats going on!?" I replied, "He's having a seizure, we need to call 911", I wasn't even sure how I had jumped to this conclusion as the amount of time from the cry to my being able to see him was less then a second, I swear! I was scrambling to find my phone when Nick picked Will up, my heart was pounding but I finally had a small wave of clarity and grabbed Nicks phone off his side table and fumbled while dialing 911. The 911 operator answered asking what my emergency was and I replied my "11 month old son is seizing." At the same time Nick was yelling, "he's not breathing, he's blue." While the 911 operator was doing her job trying to ask questions like, "how long has he been seizing, has he seized before, and does he have a fever?", I was yelling at her(sorry), "HE IS NOT BREATHING!" I looked at Nick and it was like we read each others minds, he grabbed the phone and I took Will. I looked at my baby, blue and ridged in my arms and something snapped. I laid him down and did rescue breaths, I covered his mouth and nose with my mouth and tilted his chin up and blew air into him. I think I got 2-3 breaths in when I heard another gasp from him and he started breathing again, he had stopped seizing and was completely limp on the floor. I picked him up and turned him into me making sure his airway was clear. I yelled to Nick that he had stopped seizing and was breathing but that he was limp and unconscious and most likely in a post seizure state. Having worked in the medical field with seizure disorder I was yelling all kind of things in addition like "his seizure was 2/2.5 min post seizure eyes are forward, no response to stimuli, but seizure eyes were back and his whole body was ridged". I then noticed he peed, contained by his diaper, but it was HOT and he was burning up!!!!! Being in MN I walked out onto our front porch with Will in my arms in an attempt to cool him down. My heart was still pounding and my arms were shaking and all I could do was sing to my baby, I sang, This Little Light of Mine over and over. FINALLY the ambulance showed up! It seriously was only 5 min from the start of his seizure until help arrived but man did it feel like days had gone by. Will and I went into the ambulance and my husband followed in our car.
