little noah things

Last Thursday we put Noah down at about 7 and he slept for a blissful THREE hours. At 10 he woke up as per usual and wanted to be comforted. This is when I heard his super labored breathing. It seemed like he was in a room with very little oxygen and trying to catch a breath. I called Sam in to listen because I have a tenancy to be a bit over dramatic when it comes to possible maladies my child may have, while my husband is usually the reasonable and logical one. He agreed that Noah sounded bad. He told me to calm down. And then he started asking me about everything I had given him to eat, did I check the ingredients, was there any thing new. Not calm any more! I gave my baby something terrible, I am a horrible mother! Beans. It was his first time having beans. With CUMIN! I have brought this on us all with my over confident feeding of my child spices and foods grown ups eat! Can I throw up now?

I did not throw up. After Googling beans and Cumin we decided it was very unlikely that he was having an allergic reaction. We then called Auntie Gil who is a pediatric nurse and also, my hero. She asked if Noah was wheezing which he was (his breathing had gone from bad to worse). Then she said we needed to take him to the ER if we didn’t have a pediatric urgent care. I found out later she thought I sounded calm. Ha! In my memory of the situation I was crying and yelling at Sam and generally FREAKING OUT.

We got to the ER at about 10:30. We waited for 15 minutes and they took us to triage. Noah’s breathing had calmed down a bit, but was still labored. They checked his temperature and oxygen levels which were both fine and sent us back to wait. All the while Sam is telling everyone things like “We’re new parents, can’t you tell?” and “He is probably totally fine now”. While I was like he couldn’t BREATHE! That is a big deal! 30 minutes after that they took us to a room in what was called “Fast Track” according to some fliers on the wall that were titled “Untitled” and we waited a bit more. Then a respiratory specialist came in to see us and said it was probably croup. Something that we had heard a few times already that night from other nurses. And Croup? Really? That is one of those things that I always thought every baby gets and is no big deal and involves coughing, not ER visits. Well, apparently there are cases that involve hospitalization and are pretty serious. Noah has Croup.

They gave him some steroids, took an xray of his chest and gave him a cool mist treatment telling us to bring him in to a steamy bathroom or take him in to the cold night air if it happens again. Phew!

I should mention that the entire time we were in the ER Noah was charming basically everyone. He thought the ER was a total blast. If he could talk I am sure he would have asked to do this every night. He was laughing and kicking and dancing and even really loved the tasty steroids.

We got home about 3:30 AM and I brought him in bed to sleep with us because no way was I going to let him be down the hall when he stops breathing again. I managed to fall asleep after listening to him breathe forever.

I woke up to this:

The Yucky Game from samuelarno on Vimeo.

Over and over and over. With the laughing his tiny belly laugh. He is FINE. He has been coughing every now and again. He hates bed time and will only go to sleep with me in our bed and nursing all night long (I am so not going to make him go back to the crib until he is over this thing) and that means I get pretty much no time with Sam in the evenings. Last night was the first time I got to watch a tv show (LOST) alone with Sam at night. It was great. I feel like a new woman. I feel like I could write a blog post instead of reading the next Sookie Stackhouse novel while I listen to Noah breathe during his nap.

*UPDATE: Noah has been sleeping for TWO HOURS. This is great.