Let’s talk about BRUEs

What the heck is a BRUE (pronounced brew-ee) and why have I never heard of it? The medical definition of a BRUE is Brief Resolved Unexplained Event. My definition… WTF Is happening?

O was about 2-3 months when she decided she wanted to teach us a thing or two. My husband and I slept in shifts; I would stay up during the day to care for O while he slept, and he would stay up throughout the night while I slept (Honestly, it was amazing and recommend it to any and everyone with a newborn). Anyways, my husband was watching her and I’m dead asleep, the next thing I know, he bursts in the room crying saying I don’t know what’s wrong. The skin around her lips were blue, she was limp, and just completely out of it. I take her and try to stimulate her the best I can while also trying to reassure my husband. We live out in the middle of nowhere (takes us 20ish minutes to get to town), I said we’re going to the hospital. The closest pediatric hospital is probably about 30 minutes away so we packed everything up in the middle of the night and hauled a*s. Halfway there, she regained her alertness, she wasn’t as out of it, but you could tell something was wrong. We got her to the hospital, got back immediately, they did a couple of tests and couldn’t find anything. The diagnosis: BRUE. They say these things just happen and there’s usually no reason as to why it happens. They kept us overnight for monitoring and it didn’t happen again during our stay. I ordered an owlet (best money I’ve spent on her) that same night.

The second time O had a BRUE, we were prepared, but we were still taken aback. This time, my husband and I were both awake, we heard gurgling coming from her bed and she was bubbling at the mouth and also gasping for air. The skin around her lips turned blue and again, was very hard to arouse. Again, we were headed back to the ER. This time, they just monitored O in the ER for several, several hours and came back with the diagnosis of... you guessed it: BRUE. We had the option of staying the night at the hospital or discharging home; we chose the latter. I stayed up on edge and found it nearly impossible to sleep. While we had the owlet on her, it provided some relief, but not completely. I had that obsessive feeling that she was going to stop breathing in her sleep and kept staying up to check on her. Thankfully, that was the last BRUE that she's ever had.

BRUEs are scary, unpredictable, and difficult to manage in the moment. The most important thing you can do is stay calm (I know, very difficult to do in a moment like that), but remember, you can't help your baby if you are freaking out. Research is also imperative; we had no idea what they were and quite honestly, we still don't have a clue, but we know more now than we did then. If you'd like further information, I'll put it under the Mama Resources tab.

You got this mama

❤️