Two days before Violet turned one month old, she was acting very unusual during the night. She was very fussy, threw up her milk and sounded raspy while she was sleeping. I stayed up all night with her, listening to her breathe, thinking she possibly had RSV.
My husband and I tried to wake her up and feed her the next morning. She did not want to eat, which was very unusual. She started making a weird noise and felt very hot. We took her temperature and it was 103 degrees Fahrenheit. I can’t even tell you how fast we packed everything up and took her to the hospital.
Violet underwent multiple tests and pokes, a life-flight and spinal taps. She stopped breathing three times and went into sepsis and needed to be intubated. After multiple MRIs and two hospitals later, we finally found out she had contracted bacterial meningitis. Thankfully, the doctors had already started Violet on an antibiotic, predicting that she had meningitis even before they were completely certain.
One of the hardest things to hear was that doctors were not sure how this even happened and that she would need to stay in the hospital for a whole month on continuous antibiotics. The doctors also informed us that Violet’s bacterial meningitis affected her brain and that she may have developmental delays, speech delays or hearing loss.
I am so proud to say that ever since her month-long stay in the hospital, our girl has been thriving! Violet passed her hearing test and her most recent MRI of her brain even shocked the doctors with how well everything looked.
She is now nine months old and the happiest baby. She loves trying new foods, talking, reading books, playing with her friends, family and puppies. She loves going for walks and being outside. She is crawling everywhere now and is pulling herself up to stand and even trying to take a few steps.
There still is the unknown for her developmental and speech progression but we see how strong and determined our girl is and know she will be okay.
I am so glad we acted and took her in when she started showing symptoms of sickness. However, I do wish we even acted sooner so she wouldn’t have needed to be intubated and then hospitalized for a month, but you can’t change the past. All I can say is, please do not take a fever lightly, especially in babies, and also always trust your gut. Don’t be afraid to take your baby to the hospital if you believe that something is wrong.
I thank god every day that he let my baby stay. And I hope Violet’s story shows that even a hard diagnosis can still lead you to happiness. It’s just a matter of getting through it, together. 🤍