Our First Trip to the Emergency Room

Oy, what a night we had! Joshua woke up around 12:40 a.m. crying. This happens sometimes, and he always cries himself back to sleep. Last night, though, something was different. In-between cries I heard a strange squeaking noise. At first, I thought it was Mike breathing heavily, but I went to check on Josh anyway. Sure enough, HE was the one making the squeaking sound. It was so loud that we could hear him through our closed bedroom door and his closed door. I went into his room and got him out of bed. He was coughing and wheezing so badly that he couldn't quite catch his breath. This came on so suddenly - when we had put him to bed at 9, he was fine! I took him downstairs to try to get him to calm down, but Mike and I knew in a matter of minutes that we needed to get to the hospital.

We threw the diaper bag into the car and rushed to the hospital in our p.j.'s. When we got there, we got checked in and right away they gave him a steroid and a nebulizer treatment to try to get his airways to open up. Thankfully, the treatments worked within minutes and he started breathing normally again. The ER doctor diagnosed croup, which, while miserable, is easily treatable. We have no idea how this came on; he has not been around anyone sick and has not had a cold or anything. The only explanation I can come up with is that he might have allergies. Mike and I both have allergies, and I get really sick and congested when my allergies kick in. We have been spending a lot of time outdoors lately, so perhaps he got attacked by some nasty pollen? Up until now, we have been very blessed that we have never had to take him to the doctor for anything but a well-baby check, so it was definitely scary to see our usually healthy-as-a-horse little man so sick. He was so brave and we are so thankful to God that he is going to be fine!

Needless to say, none of us got much sleep last night. But our sweet boy is now on antibiotics and will hopefully be feeling better soon! He is currently resting and watching, "Bee-jees," which means, "Veggies." The boy loves VeggieTales!

Here are a few photos of our sick boy...



Despite feeling rotten, he still has some smiles for his momma!



Mommy is a big softy and bought him a new book because she feels so bad for him...



We hope you have a great day!