Sleep Saver

Nathan woke us up not feeling well on Monday night. I thougth it was just a cold but it was the first time he has ever told us that his throat hurt. We did all the usual things for a cold and took shifts sitting up with him (around my pumping) and made it through the night. Tuesday afternoon Mom gave me a call that Nathan woke up from his nap crying with a barking cough! Very concerned, we went to the doctor that night and found out Nathan has croup.

The dr. said he knew right away from the cough that sounds like a seal barking for it's dinner. And he was right, that's exactly what Nathan's cough sounded like.

He had been doing breathing treatments all day which I'm sure helped a little. The dr. gave him two antibiotic pills in the office and sent us home with one for the next night and a package of pulmicort which was double the strength he is used to. We were to use that each night. The dr. also told us to expect it to get much worse at night and he would probably be up most of the night coughing. We weren't looking forward to that!

We made pretty good time and were home about 8:30 pm. James rushed Evan off to bed (or so he thought) and I got Nathan ready for bed. One dose of Dimatap before bath, a nice warm bubble bath, breathing treatment with the new meds and then a trick that Mary Nell from work told me about. I put Vicks on his feet and then socks. The vaporizer was already humming and a vicks plugin was working when we got ready to do stories. James came in during stories with a very awake Evan! When the floppy game started for Nathan, I took Evan, made another bottle and sat in the recliner with the really soft afghan that Julie's Mom had sent us. About 12 ounces of milk later and Evan was finally asleep.

We collapsed into bed a little after 11 pm expecting to be up again all night - I was thrilled to wake up at 4 am to pump and find that everyone was sleeping soundly (even James was snoring!).

Not sure exactly what did the trick - if it was all the medicines, the vicks, a very elevated bed, or the nosespray that James gave Nathan. But we were so grateful for a good night's sleep. So very grateful that we repeated the routine last night and here I am at 5:30 am pumping and everyone is asleep! Evan woke at 1:15 am wanting another bottle, but aside from that all went well.

We'll try the routine again tonight but we are out of antibiotics. So, I'm not sure what did the trick, but we will definitely keep trying the vicks. I actually found two sites on the web suggesting it and Mary Nell had sent me one of those circulating emails that said how good it works. Somethng is helping us sleep with the croup!

Now my prayer is that Nathan gets well soon and Evan does not catch it! But for now everyone is enjoying sweet dreams!