The E.R.

Allow me to document:
Sunday evening I noticed that Matthew was developing a croupy cough. I wasn't real concerned so we sent him to bed like always. About midnight he woke up coughing and with a sore throat. He always says, "Ouch" after he coughs- pretty sad but kind of cute. Anyways, he was having a little bit of a hard time breathing but after holding him and letting him sleep propped up on the couch with me for a while he was fine. He spent the rest of the night in our bed which meant that he slept well but Justin and I didn't sleep much at all. Monday morning Justin stayed home from classes to watch Matthew while I went to preschool because we didn't want to leave him with the babysitter and get her kids sick. He was tired and whiny all day from not having a great night sleep, and of course from not feeling super well, but he really was fine all day and hardly even coughed. So Monday night I put him to bed with no worries, looking forward to a good night's sleep in my bed. He slept great and didn't make any noise at all until 9:30 when he woke up coughing. I noticed that he was having a pretty difficult time breathing so I held up on the couch again until Justin got home. Matthew was having a hard time going back to sleep and every breath he was wheezing and really working hard. So we did all the good croup tricks. We took him outside on the balcony and let him breath in the cool night air. We turned on the shower and held him in a steamy bathroom for a few minutes. This seemed to help so Justin sent me in to bed and he stayed out on the couch with Matthew until he fell asleep. It only took a few minutes for Matthew to have another bad coughing spell but this time it was really bad. He was gasping for air between each cough which made him cough more, which made it harder to breath. He got so worked up that he started to gag and almost puked. We knew he had to take him in and since it was 10:30 the only place open was the E.R. We quickly threw some clothes on and off we went. As I listened to Matthew struggle to take each breath I was so grateful to live only 5 minutes away from a hospital.
We got to the E.R. and checked in and they got us right in to triage to take his vitals. While they were asking us all the questions, Matthew threw up. We cleaned him up and then they finished. His pulse was pretty high and his blood oxygen levels were low. The good thing was that he was their top priority and so we got to go right back to the first available room. The doctor listened to him breath and said that he was pretty tight, probably breathing through a tiny slit in his throat. So they gave him a dose of steroids and they did a breathing treatment on him. For that they held a vaporizer thing in front of his face that he had to breath in. Matthew didn't love this part and cried the whole time. Right towards the end he threw up all over again. He got himself all dirty so he got to wear a sweet little hospital robe. We didn't get any pictures of him at the hospital but we took one of him in it this morning at home.
Because he had thrown up they had to come and give him more of the steroids and he didn't super love eating that stuff either. He just laid on the bed for about 20 minutes and then you could tell that everything kicked in and he felt better. He got up and was super happy and playing. He really didn't like the wristband they put on him and kept wanting me to take it off. We let him have fun for a little while but about 12:45 we made him lay down and go to sleep. He was tired and obviously needed his rest, and we really wanted to be able to get a little sleep too. They had to keep him there until 2 o'clock to wait for the medicine to wear off and make sure he didn't rebound right back to where he had been before. But he checked out great. His oxygen levels looked good and while his breathing wasn't perfect it was safe and much better. The doctor gave us some instructions, my favorite one being "not to have any power struggles with him." He said that crying would make his throat swell back faster and so as much as possible I should not make him cry today. That didn't go so well. Take a sick, tired, toddler and mix it with a sleep deprived, pregnant mom and there are going to be some tears. Oh well. They also told me to feed him honey because that would help him not cough as much which would help keep the swelling down.
So we headed off for home all too ready to hit the sack. I had only gotten about 40 minutes of sleep while at the hospital and was holding up okay but really needed to sleep. Luckily Matthew laid right down and slept through the night just fine. Today was a little rough, as mentioned before, just because Matthew was tired and cranky, and my patience bucket was running a little low by the end of the day. Now it is 9:45 and he has been sleeping peacefully since 8. (Why am I still awake you say if I am so tired. I had to finish up some preschool things and get them to the other teacher since I have to stay home with Matthew tomorrow. Having a sick kid is such a pain.) Hopefully I can go lay down and not be disturbed until 7 o'clock. And I say that for both for me and Justin, and for Matthew. It is no fun watching your little boy be sick and miserable. I like them best happy and healthy! I really am so grateful for modern medicine. Who knows how long Matthew would have had to struggle breathing last night, and maybe it wouldn't have gotten better and something worse would have happened. Luckily we will never have to know because it was an easy fix at the doctor's. And now, goodnight!