You think once you have one kid that having the second will be a relative piece of cake because even though you may have forgotten it over the short couple of years, most everything you deal with will be something you've already dealt with before. But don't you know Alex is here to throw me some curve balls. Even though he is (and always has been) literally a big ol' baby, he seems to have a knack for getting hit with viruses that bypassed Grace (RSV, Rotavirus, etc). We've been dealing with what seems to be the granddaddy of them all these past couple days. Yes, Alex has been hit with croup.
Now, for you uninitiated readers out there, croup is an inflammation of the voice box and the airway just beneath it. A tell-tale sign is a dry, barking cough (like a seal). Combine that with the wheezing from the restricted airway, and you have one scary sounding child. And the poor little guy gets so freaked out himself - who wouldn't when you wake up in the middle of the night having a hard time breathing. Since crying makes the situation worse, I've had to jump up at the first whimper to make sure the episode doesn't get out of control. It's a virus, so medication doesn't typically help. Home remedies include sitting in the closed up bathroom with a steamy hot shower running, or going outside to inhale cool night air. I think we did the bathroom option last night at least 5 times, and went outside twice. I realized that last night was probably my hardest "child" night experience, except for when Grace was a tiny newborn who still had her schedule mixed up and had me crying in the middle of the night rocking her because she just wouldn't go to sleep.
Oh yeah, and you need to watch out and make sure your kid doesn't get breathing that is too restricted, then you get a trip to the emergency room. So in addition to being worried about my little guy in general, I'm also really freaked that I'll miss the signs that his breathing has gone beyond the point of no return. I just ask for everyone's prayers that this is a 3-day croup rather than a 7-day one.
This is it for my post, since I got a max of 4 hours sleep last night in small increments. I keep finding myself closing my eyes with my laptop sitting in my lap.
2 comments:
I do wish you well indeed! Thoughts and PRayers
My friend Jeff, (that was with me at my accident many, many years ago on this 1-7-89!)
Well they just had their first child! 12/28/05 and,..well I guess here they go?!
again,...Wishing you well!
Five minutes until my anniversary is over! 4 three 2
I feel your pain. It was my second kid that was hit with everything too. We had to go to the emergency room many times with Blake for croup as he continued to have it up until last year (apparently his airway didn't grow as fast as the rest of him and would close very easily). I absolutely HATE watching them trying so hard to breathe and feeling like I can't breathe myself. I once got in a fight with the ER doctor (at Children's there in Dallas) because she wanted to give him an epi shot (they had already given him a steroid shot but apparently it takes a while to work) and I was too afraid that it would send him into SVT. She looked at me and said, "do you realize that these babies get so tired of fighting for a breath that they just stop?!" In the end he relaxed, she was scaring the pants off him with her yelling and once she left he could breathe easier and they actually let us go home instead of admitting us. Kids are hard, hang in there. Croup has always been a 3 day ordeal for us, hopefully it will be for you too.The shower never worked as well as the cool night air, drive around with windows down or bundlle him up and hang on your porch swing, we did that a lot. We will be thinking of you guys......
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