For the Fourth of July, we had plans to head to my family’s lake house and meet up with my brothers and get all the cousins together. After spending the night in the ER, we decided to head to my family’s lake house as we had planned. We don’t get to see them too often and I was really looking forward to it.

We headed home first, and I fell asleep in the car. When we got home, my husband took a nap before we decided to head out. It was a pretty quick, three-hour drive. Both of us were exhausted still, but we knew that my parents would be there, and we would be able to rest when we arrived. 

We had a pretty uneventful day that day with our travel. We were getting our daughter ready for bed again that night, we put the Owlet back on and it started alarming again. We tried several maneuvers they taught us and none of them seemed to help return her heart to its natural rhythm. We drove to the nearest ER there at the lakes and they performed their assessment. They are a much smaller emergency room and were not that well equipped for a four-month-old baby, but they did the best they could with what they had. The doctor also tried some different maneuvers but was unsuccessful returning her heart to its normal rhythm. They had to give her a medication to do so, but this medication is one that has the chance to stop her heart all together. They had to put the defibrillator pads on her chest just in case that would happen. 

There is something about seeing your little baby being hooked up to a machine as chilling as that. It was probably the toughest part of this whole diagnosis. Ultimately, she did fine with the medication, and they were able to stabilize her heart rhythm. We were going on our second night in a row of being up all night, I was having a hard time keeping my emotions in check. I was so thankful that my husband was by my side and could step up to comfort our daughter when I had to step out to take a minute. 

The plan was to transfer her back to Children’s Hospital. We were 3.5 hours away, so the options were helicopter or airplane. Children’s Hospital of Omaha didn’t want to tie up their helicopter for that long, so they called another medical transportation company. The pilot didn’t want to fly a helicopter due to the weather, so they brought a fixed wing airplane, and she got to experience her first flight with her dad by her side. Again, very thankful for my husband who was willing to step up for this task. 

I went back to the house; I needed some sleep before being able to drive the 3.5 hours back. I told my husband to make sure that he updated me when they landed and arrived at the hospital. They couldn’t get a medical transportation company lined up to pick them up at the airport, so they just ended up calling 911 when they got there. 

Children’s Hospital of Omaha admitted her this time, until their social work team was able to find a pharmacy that was able to fill the needed prescription. It probably took less than 24 hours. I met them at the hospital the next day just in time for them to be discharged.  

We went to the pharmacy, paid three dollars for the prescription and made our way back home. Throughout all of this, again I am thankful for those people willing to step up when we needed help. That night at the lakes, my mom offered to drive me to the hospital if I wanted. By then, I was pretty comfortable with her diagnosis and its outcomes that I needed to rest. So, I was able to make the trip on my own, but her offer was enough for me to know they were there to support us. I am also thankful that my mother-in-law lives nearby and was able to come watch her for a few hours when we did get home so we could both get some more rest, just in time for the week to start back up again.