(Christmas eve-eve)Sunday morning, we headed to a family gathering with my in-laws, sister and brother-in-law, and the brother-in-law's parents (at their house!) It was really nice. We were invited because these folks have been friends of the family (really a part of the family) for most of their lives! We had a wonderful dinner, really tons of food, and then we opened a few gifts. Taylor Anne got a great stamp set, and Anderson didn't really care what he got. He did play with the shape sorting train a little bit, but I thought he would be a little more into the present thing, it seems he's still at the "ooooohhh tissue paper!!!" stage.
(Christmas eve) Monday morning, we headed over to my in-law's house for breakfast and to open presents with my husband's side of the family. It was really good, we had a great time, and having breakfast there was really fun. There was a huge pile of presents to open there... My brother-in-law made these great trucks and a bulldozer for Anderson. NO lead paint here!!! These trucks are really great, very sturdy!
Once we finished up there, we headed to my parent's house for dinner/lunch with my father's side of the family at around 2pm. We opened a few presents with all of the crazy cousins and aunts and uncles from that side of the family, and relaxed for the rest of the evening with my parents and my sister's family.
Once we finished up there, we headed to my parent's house for dinner/lunch with my father's side of the family at around 2pm. We opened a few presents with all of the crazy cousins and aunts and uncles from that side of the family, and relaxed for the rest of the evening with my parents and my sister's family.Christmas morning! We did the 'Santa' thing, then opened presents with my parents, my sister's family, and the kidos. It all was tons of fun!
Taylor Anne and her Barbie horse set:
Helping Anderson open his stocking:
The horse stalls - a huge hit!
Sweet kisses for Grover!
Taylor Anne's first Hurricane's Jersey!
We had to clean up pretty quickly, we had lunch at 1pm with my Mom's side of the family. We also then opened presents with that side of the family.
Helping Anderson open his stocking:The horse stalls - a huge hit!Sweet kisses for Grover!Taylor Anne's first Hurricane's Jersey!We had to clean up pretty quickly, we had lunch at 1pm with my Mom's side of the family. We also then opened presents with that side of the family. We had a happy and busy Christmas!
Now the dramatic part: My sweet girl seemed to be getting a cold, and Christmas night she woke up coughing, but was able to get back to sleep just fine. The next day we went up to the lake house with my parents - just to hang out with them since Taylor Anne was out of school. She's on an intersession period from her school, and we don't get to spend a lot of time with my parents usually. So we went up to the lake, had some relaxing time there, and Anderson seemed to be getting a cold that evening. I put the kids to bed, and everything seemed normal... My parents and I sat up and watched the Dale Earnhardt DVD my Dad got from my sister for Christmas, and then Anderson woke up coughing around 10pm. He went back to sleep, and I went to bed at about 10:45. About midnight, he woke up again, this time he was coughing and wheezing a lot. I picked him up and got him back to sleep with me in the bed, sleeping semi-upright because I figured he was just congested from the cold. Well, I guess around 2am he woke up again, and was gasping for air... like a fish out of water. It was really scary for me and I picked him right up and started carrying him around, patting him on the back, thinking he needed help dislodging mucus or something. I didn't know what to do, and that's all I could think of. He was really having trouble breathing, wheezing, coughing - really it sounded like a seal barking. I had to get up and walk around with him, and I was scared. My parents also got up and we talked about maybe going to the hospital. I thought it might be pneumonia, or something like Croup (but I didn't know what Croup was). The nearest hospital to the lake house is a good 45 min. away! I decided to call the doctor's office nurse line. They paged the doctor, and he called me back pretty quickly. I described what was happening, and the doc said "you've described it very well - and what you're describing is Croup". Man - I had heard of Croup, but didn't know what it was, didn't know what the symptoms were or what caused it. He said he was 100% sure that's what we were dealing with. Apparently Croup is caused by a virus, the same virus that gives adults and older kids laryngitis, and lose their voice. What happens is it makes the vocal chords swell up and in young children it is very dangerous because their windpipe is so narrow anyway, it can close up completely and they can choke to death. I asked what to do, should we take him to the hospital? He asked how far the hospital was, and told me that at this point he wouldn't suggest going to the hospital because it was so far away. He told me to go into the bathroom, close the door, and turn on the hot shower, so it would get really steamy. He said to keep him in there, and he would call back in 20 min to check on him. We would talk about other options at that point depending on his reaction to this treatment. Luckily after that time period Anderson had stopped gasping, and the doc called back to get an update. This was at about 2:45am! Anderson was still wheezing, but had stopped gasping for air, and that seemed to be the biggest issue. Doc said to keep him in a high humidity environment as much as possible, (we wouldn't get much/if any more sleep that night) and bring him into the office first thing in the morning. They would probably give him a steroid shot, he said. So, at about 6:30am or so, we packed up and left the lake house and headed home so I could get him to the office when it opened. I was there at 8am and they got him in immediately. They saw him, and gave him the shot, and monitored him for the next 15 minutes to make sure of his reaction, then we went home. The doctor we saw in the office said he should show some improvement by that afternoon, and that that night we shouldn't have trouble like the night before. Luckily, she was right, and the steroid seemed to do it's job. We slept most of the day, and then Anderson slept great that night too. No problems. He's still sounding congested, but that's normal for a few days. So we're hanging out at home hoping to get everyone healthy in time to go visit my sister on Sunday. I have my fingers crossed for a healthy new year for our family!!!!
Not a bit of crafting going on... I'll post some pictures as soon as I get back into the craft room.
1 comment:
Oh my gosh Em - I didn't read this post! I am so sorry to hear that your little guy got the croup. A good friend's daughter had the same thing and missed her birthday. I am so glad to hear that he is doing better. I really hope my little bean doesn't have that but now I know we can hop in the bathroom and turn on the shower if it happens!
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