I've heard many stories from many parents about some serious moments they have experienced with their children. Last week, Lisa and I had our first such experience. We had arrived at my Aunt's house in Indiana around 3pm on Thursday and had enjoyed the evening catching up with my family. I put Lainey to bed in the pack-n-play without any real issue and headed upstairs after I knew she was settled in.
About a half hour later, I checked back on her to find her screaming. It's hard to know if she had been crying for a long time or for only a minute, but I am guessing she had been crying for a few minutes, as she had tears streaming down her face and was sobbing pretty hard. I picked her up, gave her the paci and rocked her and sang to her. She settled down after a couple of minutes and eventually fell asleep. As I was leaving I noticed that she sounded a little raspy in her breathing, but I chalked that up to her screaming episode.
When Lisa and I went to sleep in the same room with the girls, Lainey was still out like a light, but her breathing still sounded a bit raspy. Periodically, Lainey would cough a little, give a short cry and then go back to sleep - all the while wheezing away. At first, I was able to go back to sleep after hearing her, but after a few times of this occurring, I couldn't go back to sleep because I was listening to her breathing. At around 2am, Lisa woke up to Lainey's crying and brought Lainey to bed with us. After a few minutes, Lisa took Lainey to the bathroom and laid her on the floor to check er breathing. Her lips and fingernails were not blue and although her breathing sounded wheezy, she didn't seem to be struggling with it. In fact, she kept trying to go back to sleep between coughing fits.
Lisa decided to call our pediatricians after hours phone line and talked with a nurse about what was occurring. While on the phone, Lainey had another coughing fit, worse than the previous ones. The nurse heard her over the phone and asked how close we were to a hospital. Our best guess was a half hour, and the nurse told us to call 911. So, at 2:30am, we called 911 without even knowing the address of the house we were in. Within 5 minutes a volunteer fireman arrived at the house and began to check Lainey over in the living room. By the time the paramedics arrived a couple of minutes later, Lainey was breathing much better. After a thorough check of her oxygen levels, pulse and heartrate, the professionals encouraged us to take her to the hospital, which was only 15 minutes away.
After the parade of people left the house, Lisa and I made our way to the county hospital. Within a minute of being in the car, Lainey was sound asleep and breathing quietly. We arrived at the hospital and within 5 minutes Lainey was being checked by a nurse. After that, we spent a few minutes on paperwork before being called back into the Emergency Room. We waited for 5 minutes to see the doctor and he checked Lainey out. He agreed with all the other people that had checked Lainey already: she had croup.
Evidently, the cool night air was the perfect thing for her breathing. So by the time we got to the hospital, Lainey was more annoyed with the attention than anything and wanted to get some sleep. After spending less than an hour and a half on our hospital trip, we arrived back at the house to grab a couple of hours of sleep.
Lainey spent the next 2 days in recovery mode, but she appears to be doing much better now.
I, however, think I may be getting a cold or sore throat as a result of all that fun.
I am thankful that Lainey was not in desperate need of care that night and I am thankful that this was the first such incident in our family. It's not a good feeling to know that your child is hurting and you don't have any idea what is wrong or what you can do to help it. I am thankful that God has gifted people with the ability to diagnose and help aid little children in such circumstances.
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