Poor David.

Hi!

Most of you know this information, if you're friends with me on facebook.

You know, David is hardly ever sick. He got roseola that one time, which barely counts. He had an ear infection we didn't know about until we took him to his well-child visit one time. He's had lots of colds, but those hardly count.
So lately he's been doing his best to make up for 2 years of not being sick! Yay!
Friday night he woke up with a barking cough, and he was crying. i got him up, called the nurse line, and the nurse line heard him coughing and said he had croup. Which is not usually a big deal, in most kids it's very mild. We spent about a 1/2 hour in the bathroom with the hot water running. He slept fitfully coughing the rest of the night.

Saturday afternoon we were at my parent's house and he was taking a nap. He woke up not only coughing badly, but his breathing was incredibly labored. i took him to urgent care. He had 102.5 temp. His o2 stats were good, he didn't have influenza, so the Dr. labeled it as an unknown virus with the croup. Our instructions were to keep a humidifier in his room and give him Motrin. If at any point, the skin in his neck and right under his rib cage sucked in when he was breathing, i was to bring him to the E.R. because it meant that his airways were blocked.

Saturday night, he was doing better with the Motrin. He went to sleep like a champ. 11:00 he woke up coughing and crying, so i was going to have him sleep with me in my bed until Kris got home from work. i laid him on my bed, and he was taking short breaths and his skin was sucking in when he inhaled. It was so awful, watching my little manster struggling for breath. i was crying but trying to smile and use a happy tone so he wouldn't get scared. It was not a good Valentine's day.

So i took him to the E.R., where of course he showed no symptoms, and i was really worried it was going to be an E.R. visit where i would get told "give him Tylenol and keep him hydrated". Fortunately, he coughed and had his labored breathing in front of the doctor finally, so they gave him a steroid and they gave him an epinephrine nebulizer treatment. His fever was down to 101.7. With nebulizer treatments, you have to stay at the hospital for about 3 hours so they know it's working or something. So we were there till 2:30.

He slept well that night. Kris took care of him while i was at church the next morning. His fever seemed to be better, which is good. He still was coughing at night. He and i slept on the recliner for about an hour on Sunday night. He woke up after a while, had a coughing fit, and once that was over, he couldn't get comfortable so i put him in bed, and for the first time i think since we put him in his toddler bed, he just stayed in bed and went to sleep.

Cadence, God bless her, started sleeping through the night, like 12 hour shots, last weekend. So that's good news.

So on Monday, the kids had their 4 month and 2 year old well-child checkups. The Dr. did Cadence first, and she said "Do you think Cadence has an ear infection at all?" And we didn't think so-she had been happy as a clam lately. Turns out she had an ear infection. i guess my kids don't have symptoms with ear infections? And David was fine, his fever was much better, and we were told he'd still cough for about a week.

Tuesday was David's birthday!!
2 years old. Craziness. Luckily, he was feeling great that day. Kris and i took him to this indoor park with play tubes and slides and stuff like that. We went at night, too, and there were only a couple other kids there, so David had the run of the place. We had a picnic there, and then we went to Outback for his free spotted dog sundae.


Oh, and David had his first snickers bar and his first pb & j sandwich, and he's a huge fan. He does not appear to be allergic to peanuts, and loves them. It's been a long two years, not feeding him peanuts. Glad that's over!


So then Wednesday. He woke up early, and crying this really sad, really low pain cry. He just wanted to be held, and he was whining and grabbing at his ear. He wouldn't eat and nothing made him happy, poor fellow. So i made him a Dr. appointment.


He had an ear infection and bronchitis. That kid can not catch a break lately! So we got antibiotics for him, and now we own a nebulizer, which apparently insurance covers 100%, which is awesome. It is very difficult, trying to give 2 neb treatments per day to a 2-year-old. But hopefully he'll be completely better soon.


It's been an exhausting week, you guys. Watching my little son gasping for air just about killed me. i'm so glad he's doing better.