A scary pool day

Well, we certainly know how to make things interesting. If you remember, just a few short months ago, we had firefighters at our house for a grill fire. Now we had 'first responders' to the pool for AJ. Sigh.

First let me say that AJ is ok...but, we had a very scary day at the pool on Sunday. Our pool is really awesome I must say. It isn't a community pool (you pay to become a member) and there is one big downside that I won't get into on here, but...we love it. It has a very large pool, a very large baby pool with a massive playground area in the water, a nice big sandbox, some water slides, and an area we call the 'sprinkler system', which has different sprinkler areas (like a shower, fountain type things, small buckets that dump water, etc.--none of it is in standing water, it's all drained). We usually get to everything on a visit to the pool. AJ always wants to jump from area to area, he LOVES the pool.

So Sunday we are enjoying a beautiful day at the pool and were there for about an hour and a half or so I would say. We had already hit most of the areas and always go to the sprinkler system after the sandbox to rinse off any residue sand. AJ was having a blast, as were we. He was hopping from sprinkler to sprinkler. I wish I had photos to better explain myself, but I don't and couldn't find any online either.

There was one sprinkler that shot up at an angle. AJ loves to sit on it as it shoots up--most kids there do the same thing. As he was going to sit on it, he lost his balance and fell back and hit his head. He started to cry immediately. I was standing right next to him and picked him up. John came over to console him as well. Within seconds of me picking him up, his body went completely limp, his head buried into my chest, and his eyes rolled to the back of his head--essentially, he passed out.

We ran over to the nearest lifeguard to get help with him in my arms. He woke up as soon as we got there and with a stranger looking over him, he started to cry. The lifeguard blew the whistle and within seconds we had another lifeguard in the stands, and two others to assist with AJ. I think the commotion of not knowing where he was and having these strangers looking him over was too much, because he was a mess crying. We took him over to the first aid station, but he DID NOT want anyone but John or I to look or touch him. I took him to the potty to calm him down, which seemed to work. By the time we got back to the first aid station, two sheriffs and an ambulance had arrived.

AJ was curious with the police officers and the paramedics, which seemed to keep him content. They took his vitals, looked at his head, and asked him questions. His vitals were great and he was answering questions just fine. He also had not even a bump on his head. They asked if we wanted to take him to the hospital, but since the only thing the hospital would do would be to watch him, we decided with the paramedics not to take him and instead they told us what to look out for. They were specifically looking for a concussion, which they didn't think he had.

What we think happened was a combination of it being REALLY HOT, AJ not really drinking much water while we were there (unless you count him trying to drink pool water :)), reaction and losing some breath, and then the commotion of me picking him up and such--creating just a loss of blood to his head for a minute and he passed out shortly. There are some children that hold their breath when they get upset to the point that they pass out, so it's something similar to that I guess.

Anyway, we left the pool and played it safe the rest of the day. AJ was his usual hyper self by the time we got home. It was as if nothing had happened. We didn't put him down for a nap because we were nervous--even though the paramedics say that we could put him down and just check on him from time to time...it still made us uncomfortable.

So all is well now, but it was scary! AND...the commotion didn't put me into labor, so I'm thinking nothing will!