Wednesday was Blake's company Christmas party, and we didn't get home until 11pm - which means the kids weren't actually in bed until 11:30pm, and we weren't in bed until midnight. Not terribly out of the ordinary for us, but it was for the kids. At 1:45am, we were woken up to a crying baby, but this was not just any crying baby - it was our baby for one - and he was crying more than ordinary and with slightly labored breathing and he was burning up. Normally he will cry for a little bit, and go back to sleep, but he didn't do that this time, and since he sounded so bad, I went in to get him. A little bit of snuggling got him back to sleep for a bit by around 2:15am, and then it was more difficulty and up again at 3. I turned on the humidifier, and held him by it for a little bit, and then let him fall asleep on top of me. Unfortunately, he just started sounding worse and worse. At 4:30 I decided that we needed to do more than just comfort him, and we got dressed and called the hospital.
The hospital next to us is a full emergency room, and hospital, but does not specialize in anything so far as I can tell, so I called to make sure that they were equipped to handle a baby who was coming in with breathing problems which sounded Croupy to me. When Jake sounded this way at about a year old, I took him directly to Dell Children's, but I know the local hospital is WAY faster to get into, and they have been able to handle everything else we have thrown at them over the years, so I was hoping they could handle this too. I called because I didn't want to go in just to have to transfer to another hospital... They told me to come on in.
We arrived at the hospital a little after 5am (I have been basically awake since 1:45 - because who can go back to sleep when their baby is having a hard time). I walked into the ER, which was empty, and the lady behind the window took one look at us, came through the door and escorted us back to a room without making us fill out any paperwork. I guess when you come in with a baby who can't breathe well, that they take you more seriously.
What we looked like - Travis has bloody boogers all over his face because he jammed his nose into the boogy sucker in his struggles to get away from it earlier - my shirt has bloody boogers on it from him snuggling. He is sweaty from the fever, and from crying. He is making a high-pitched wheezing/whistling sound every time that he breathes (strider breathing), and his chest is caving in on breathing in (retractions) because he can't get enough air. So, it makes sense that they rushed us back.
Travis was hooked up to the little thing they wrap around your toe to tell your pulse-oxygen level, or something, he got a blood pressure cuff, and his temperature taken - 102.6. They immediately got one of those smoky-breathing things, and had him inhale that for about 15 minutes. Travis was so miserable that he basically just laid on my chest and let them do what they wanted to him. The breathing treatment didn't really help much, he still was wheezing horribly, and having the retractions. They gave him an oral steroid to help open up his airways, and ibuprofen for his fever. Then they told me that they were going to transfer us to Children's across town because he wasn't improving enough, and they didn't have the specialized care which we could receive at Children's. (Oh joy, just what I was trying to avoid).
While we were there, I swear that every person who was on duty in the ER was in our room. There may have been one other person in the ER, but we certainly received all the attention - about 12 people in and out of the room in all with 3 or more present at all times!
It is 6:30 at this point, and Travis is still awake, been awake most of the night, but is so miserable he is just laying on me not moving very much. While waiting to be transferred, they do chest X-rays to check for pneumonia, and they take snot samples to check for RSV and for the Flu. He was not particularly happy about either of those because it meant not being able to lay on me with his head on my chest for a couple minutes each. By 7am, the paramedics arrived to take us by ambulance across town.
The paramedics were very nice, and they loosely strapped me to the gurney, and I continued to hold on to my sick little boy. Of course, going across town, we hit ALL the morning traffic, and what is about a 20 minute drive took an hour. Travis was stable though, and sound asleep finally, so the emergency lights and sirens were not used - probably would have freaked him out if they were used, which would have set him back into breathing difficulties.
We arrived at Children's a little before 8 am, and were put into a room in the emergency department there. They hooked up a bunch of monitors to Travis - another foot pulse monitor, and three chest monitors which did different things. Basically then they just monitored us. While Travis slept, he would just wheeze lightly, but if he started crying, he would go back into full retractions and strider. Around 10am, the Dr. told me that it was kind of a 50/50 toss up for her on whether to admit him, or to send him home. She said they would monitor him for a little longer and then make a decision.
Travis woke up and started to play a little bit, and one of the nurses brought in a few toys for him to try to keep him entertained. He of course threw them off the bed several times, but at least he was starting to act more like his normal self. At 11, they told us we would be able to go home - albeit they warned us of the MANY things we would have to come back in for: strider and retractions when he was not worked up, inability to swallow, paleness or blueness, and excessive drooling (really,drooling in a teething infant?).
Since we had arrived by ambulance, I had no car to get home, so I had to call Blake (who had stayed home with Jake who was still asleep), and have him drive to the first hospital, get into my car, and then come and rescue us at Children's. At 11:30 we checked out.
The rest of the day, I worked on keeping Travis calm, and allowing him to sleep on me as he had been doing at the hospital. He fell asleep at night Thursday pretty easily (who wouldn't after being up all night the night before) - but woke up scared, and ended up sleeping on me for the remainder of the night after 10pm. He is doing better, but I am still not letting him get worked up about anything since his breathing is still labored, and sounds so scary when he cries (think small kitten gasping for breath).
Friday he slept through until 6:20 am - yeah! Hopefully he'll be long over this by Christmas!
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