Well we had our first bout of croup last night and it wasn't really all that pleasant.
Paul (dad of the year - apparently mommy was sleeping verrrrry hard) brought a barking Declan into our room around 4am this morning trying to catch his breath. He sounded HORRIBLE. Most of our friends have had croup so I've been adequately warned about what it sounds like but dang. Pretty miserable. Luckily my awesome mom raised 4 kids so she has seen her fair share of nighttime illness and about a year ago printed out this packet of info for me. Kind of like a "go to" in the middle of the night...."if your kid sounds like this, do THIS". I knew it was croup the minute I heard him so we kind of sprung into action and were able to avoid an ER visit, thank heavens.......I want nothing to do with that place.
Poor buddy was so sad and very very scared. When your cough sounds like that and you are that young, I can't imagine the fear that kind of seizes you. He was so worked up and that certainly doesn't help anything. I think half the battle with Declan is that he get so freaking fired up and everything escalates so quickly. Trying to keep that kid calm is a battle of epic proportions. But luckily we had that info from my mom and she actually even answered a text i sent her at 4:30am saying hellpppppppppppp!!! We took a steam shower and then we bundled up and hung out on the back porch for awhile in the cold which worked like a charm. We also have a nebulizer so we gave him a breathing treatment just to make sure his airways were open. Perks of having an asthmatic kid.......I talked to my friend today who's been to the ER twice with her boy for croup and I guess they do that there anyways so money well spent on a neb! Way cheaper than an ER visit :)
We brought him into bed with us and he finally fell asleep around 630am. That.............was not fun. He isn't a nice co-sleeper. I love him, but I do not want to sleep next to him. Ever. He basically crawled on my back and stayed there and snored straight into my ear for an hour and a half. Essentially I've been up since 4am :)
Hopefully tonight goes better. I hate having sick babies :( I know every single person out there can sympathize. Ugh! The WORST. We have been lucky and gotten thru this winter so far with no one getting sick so it was about time huh.....dangit! Hopefully we can stay well thru Christmas and our travels. Fingers crossed. No one wants a sick Decky, I can tell ya that!
