Croup, Ambulance Ride, Hospital Stay, Oh My!

This fun story starts on Monday morning while I was at work. I went to check on Nolan and saw that he was fussy and was sounding hoarse (like Carter was the week before). He also had a slight cough and just didn't look good. So I picked up Tyler and Carter, called the pediatrician and went home. We went to the doctor for his 3:00 appointment. The doctor said most babies this age don't get croup, and why he had something, he wasn't sure he wanted to treat it for steroids at his point and to just keep an eye on him. He showed me what to look for if he was having problems breathing (contracting right below the neck since he is trying to suck in air) and to look out for a fever. If he had either of these I was suppose to bring him back in. This doctor also thought it sounded like he had reflux so he gave me a prescription for Zantac if we decide we want to try it.

That evening we ran some errands so Carter could get cupcakes to bring to his class the next day and so that Tyler could pick out his present. Nolan seemed his normal self during this whole process, maybe a little more congested than usual. As we were getting Nolan ready for bed after his 8:30 feeding I noticed his breathing was a lot worse. He also felt warm to me. He had a temperature of 100.4, so a very low fever. His breathing didn't see to get any better and he was now developing a cough that sounded bad so I called the pediatrician. The triage nurse told me to just go to the e.r., so at 9:30 we headed over there.

When you have a 9 week old you don't have to wait to long at the e.r.. We were back in the triage room within 15 minutes. From there they took his temperature which was now at 100.9, gave him some tylenol and sent him off to x-rays for a chest x-ray. From there it was straight to a room. I must say all the nurses there were great with Nolan. Either a nurse was with me or a respiratory therapist the whole time. Now Nolan didn't like me holding him up for the chest x-ray, but things just went downhill from there. After that they had to check him for rsv, which meant putting a tube down his nose to suck out boogers, drew some blood, put an iv in for fluids and antibiotics and put a catheter in to check for a bladder infection. He did pretty well, and I could get him to settle down fairly quickly after each procedure was over at least. The doctor on call came in and told me they were going to admit us. Because his airway is so small they wanted to make sure his breathing was better before sending us home.

Lucky for Nolan, the hospital we went to doesn't have a peds floor so we had to go to the other hospital, which meant an ambulance ride. While we were waiting for the ambulance, he got a breathing treatment done, which he slept though and didn't mind at all. They also gave him some steroids before we left for the hospital. The ambulance guys were great. Nolan rode in his carseat strapped to the stretcher the way there and I got to sit in the back with him. They were playful and talking to him and he even started smiling some for them. When we got to the second hospital our room was ready for us, with the breathing treatment already set up (I gave Nolan his breathing treatments on the ride). They showed me where everything was, gave me some formula to feed him with, hooked him up to all the monitors, and we tried to get some sleep (it was around 2 am at this point).

To my surprise Nolan slept pretty well and woke up around 6. I slept pretty well on the little couch in the room all things considering. When I went to the e.r. I brought our van. So at this point Justin was home with Tyler and Carter (who was suppose to celebrate his birthday at school) with no carseats to get them anywhere. Leah was nice enough to go and get our van for us so Justin could take the boys to school and then come to the hospital.

That morning Nolan was sounding a little better, but still had a horrible cough. They gave him another dose of steroids and he pretty much slept all morning. Around 10 the doctor came in and saw him and with the second dose of steroids he was doing a lot better, only sounding bad when he got upset. The doctor told us we could go home and gave us instructions that we would have to come back to the e.r. if his breathing got bad again or if his temp went above 101, or we could stay another night. We decided we would go home, being that he was sounding better and smiling and cooing at this point. She gave us a prescription to continue the steroids at home as well.  It took a while to get all the paperwork and stuff, but around noon we got to leave to go home. This actually worked out great as that right when Justin was getting back from picking up the boys from school.

The rest of the day Nolan kept sounding better, eating better, and getting his color back. I was pretty nervous about the night so we had him in our room with us. He did great however! We fed him in his sleep around 10:15 and he didn't wake up until 5:45 and then feel back asleep til 7:30! He sounds and looks so much better today. When he coughs it still sounds a little congested, but he is breathing totally fine. I am so glad it wasn't any worse than what it was. I am glad he got admitted as I think that was the best thing to do at the time, but I hope we don't have to have another one of those nights for a very long time.  The first picture is of Nolan right after we were admitted to the hospital, the second picture is the next morning waiting to go home.