Trip to the ER...

We made our first trip to the ER during the wee hours of the morning. I'm sure it won't be the last either.

Alexander was wheezing pretty bad during the day and overnight, to the point where he was having troubles breathing a few times at night. He went to bed in his crib originally but woke up 20 minutes later because he couldn't breath. Then he slept with Mommy all night, did I found that he did best downstairs with fan and not upstairs with the AC. That made his breathing much more labored.

He had two bad episodes at 11p & 4am and just when I was ready to get in the car, he calms down immediately as if he knew and then was able to fall asleep. Finally at 5am I decide he needs to get more treatment regardless if he's calm and breathing 'ok'. We head to the hospital and check in at 6am. We picked the best time, there was only one other person in front of us so no waiting at all. The Triage nurse very sweet, and considerate with Alexander. She kept asking if Monkey felt sick too. She tried to weigh him but had to use the infant scale which said 12.1 kg (24.2 lbs which seems super low to me). Then she had to take his temp rectally which made Alexander very unhappy. His temp was 102*.

She brought us to an exam room immediately by 6:15am. We had the Doctor come in, check him out, explain what she wanted to do and we had a nebulizer treatment by 6:30am. They were great about him not feeling good. At about 7am, the new nurse came in to give steriod of prednisolone to help open the airwaves. As part of the plan, they wanted us to wait 4 hours to allow them to monitor breathing which didn't help the long evening feel. Between the steriod and the cool mist we were giving him, it allowed him to sleep a bit, which he needed since he only got small little chunks during the night.

He slept for about 2 1/2 hours and with some minor wake-up moments. He did start to sound abit croup-y again so we continued the cool mist while he slept. Then he was examined by on-staff pediatrician. Pediatrican agreed with other dr that it was croup and that we were doing the right stuff to help alleviate him. He told us to continue nebulizer treatments when needed, keep him in cool settings and mix up the temps if needed. If his breathing gets SUPER labored to bring him back in but that it will run it's course.

He had to have his temp checked again (poor guy) and it was now 99* and so we were discharged and sent home. Overall it was a very very long night/morning, but we got there at 6am, and left at 10:45am...and everyone was super nice & helpful considering he was 2 1/2 and felt like crap.