So yeah, that's pretty much sucking. Callum spent the night before last feverish, bark-coughing and gasping for breath. I brought him into the pediatrician yesterday and got the obvious, expected diagnosis (that seal-bark cough is a dead giveaway), along with a prescription for steroids that seem to have helped out pretty quickly, thank goodness. It's not a severe case and I guess it's just one of those things that happens--and I know that if we hadn't put Callum in daycare we would just be further delaying the inevitable onslaught of illness that would happen the first time he entered any kind of school setting--but wow, croup is a nasty one to start off with. There is nothing quite like listening to your hoarse, raspy child cough and hack and struggle to breathe, and wake up in the night and not even be able to call for you between his barking coughs. UGH.
We ended up moving him into our room after the first wakeup because it seemed pretty clear that if he went into respiratory distress (which has happened before), he wouldn't necessarily be able to alert us from down the hall. Thankfully, that didn't happen, but we did enjoy a couple of 20-minute hangout sessions in the steamy bathroom, one at 1 a.m. and the other at 5:30.
Also our nanny comes MWF, but her Tuesday job is with a 10-week-old newborn, so we told her to stay home yesterday so that she wouldn't infect the newborn, and then of course he can't go to daycare until he's been fever-free for 24 hours, so yeah, all that thinking about the childcare arrangement and then we find ourselves without any childcare at all for two days, so that's been an added piece of the puzzle.
Anyway, things are improving, and as the doctor said, we are moving from the "worrisome cold" stage to the "annoying cold" stage, so that is good, but wow. I'm tired. And I'm not the only one. I leave you with this photo of Tragic Croup Baby, right after we had to force-feed him fruit puree with crushed steroid pill mixed into it, because he was NOT interested in eating it of his own free will. At least the damn thing worked.
One thing I found VERY HELPFUL when dealing with croup was something the nurse said, which is that if the child's lips aren't blueish, the child is getting plenty of air. Croup can sound as if the child can't breathe, when in fact the child is getting plenty of air but just making a lot of noise doing it.
ReplyDeleteI look back at Gavin's first 6 months in daycare and he was sick a lot. Not just runny nose sick (which all daycare kids seem to be), but sick enough that he had to stay home. Since then? He's only been home once or twice (and had zero visits to the pediatrician between his 18-month and 2-year check-ups). So, there's a light at the end of the tunnel, but it's no fun traveling there. Callum sure is looking sad in that photo - give him lots of hugs and here's hoping he has a speedy recovery!
ReplyDeleteWelcome to daycare! Quinn started at 3 months (October 1), and we've all been sick literally non-stop since then. It's doubly scary for us since Quinn still isn't even on the growth curve, so we have zero wiggle room for not eating. I hope Callum feels better soon!!
ReplyDeleteUnrelated - those boots have been redesigned so they have a smaller shaft. I was so sad :( They didn't even come close to zipping.
Poor buddy! Croup is awful. Evie was sick all last week with some sort of fever/flu thing and it was a nightmare. Having a sick kiddo is just so hard. And yes, daycare is an absolute killer. Evie has been in for over a year now and it's still just a nonstop germ factory. Not to scare you, but good times. Hope he feels better soon.
ReplyDeleteWe've been enrolled in daycare for a total of 11 days, including today, and MC has already missed 4 of them from illness. And she only goes 1/2 time! Everyone warned me that this would happen, but it is still a little heartbreaking for her to be sick.
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