Blog Challenge, day 13: Croup

Has your baby ever had Croup? I hope not. Carter got it when he was four months old.  Croup was a horrible thing to experience as a parent and required a trip to the Children's Hospital ER around 4:00 a.m., one day back in May. 

Carter had just gotten over the stomach flu the week before. Daycare sent him home one day with it and I kept him home the rest of the week to ensure he wouldn't pass it to anyone else. Although we kept anyone else from daycare catching the stomach flu, I caught it just in time for the weekend. Awesome.

The next week started, we were both better and life went back to normal. Carter went back to daycare for a day and I to work. Then, the next morning (around 2:00 a.m.), I heard him coughing on his monitor. After checking in on him with his cough which was nothing at the time, I woke up around 3:30 to him barking like a seal. That is what his cough changed to in an hour and a half. Poor guy was having the hardest time breathing. Kept trying to cry but couldn't due to the breathing issue and continual barking cough. I kept holding and talking to him, trying to calm him down while we called his on call doctor.  After listening to him over the phone, she said we MUST get him to Children's Hospital right away. 

Once there, without any delay they checked him in and hooked him all up to start monitoring his breathing and other vitals. Without much delay they decided he needed some steroids which they were hoping would open up his throat and help his breathing return to normal.  Unfortunately that didn't work so they next sent in a breathing specialist and we had to do a breathing treatment. They kept us there for 3 hours after his breathing treatment and continued to monitor his breathing. Finally he was on the up & up and we were released. Between Jeff and I, one of us pretty much held him the rest of that day once we were home from the hospital. Jeff and I were exhausted but glad our little guy was better and on the mend. He was checked out Thursday of that week by our Pediatrician and his oxygen levels were fine and all was good. Of course I was not going to take any chances with taking him back to daycare and he and I continued to stay home the remainder of the week.

Here is a picture of little man's foot while we were in the hospital. They monitored his oxygen levels from his big toe.  I had a picture of him with the breathing mask on but deleted it that same week. It was too sad of a picture and nothing I wanted to look back on and remember. This is enough to remember that horrible and scary day.