That Was Exciting

There is something terribly cute, and at the same time terribly sad, about a baby hospital gown.

I now have first-hand experience with it, since Ryan spent a day in the hospital on Timothy’s birthday. (Nice timing, baby boy.)

Last Sunday, I could tell that Ryan was getting sick. I had hoped, when I saw that Sarah was congested and a little ill, that Ryan wouldn’t catch it, but he did. At any rate, I wasn’t really worried because Sarah was hardly phased by it and I assumed it was just a mild virus.

Well, the difference between 4 years and 4 months readily became apparent on Sunday night. Ryan slept half the night in his swing after getting really fussy about his stuffy nose. He slept comfortably once in his swing, so I didn’t really worry. On Monday, he was needy. It made working interesting, especially since he wouldn’t really play on his own. He spent a lot of time in my arms or in his swing.

Monday night, I could tell that he was worse, but didn’t know that there was much I could do for him besides put him in his swing and try to let him sleep that way again. Around midnight, he started coughing. I was a bit worried about this cough (the first time he did it), and he was struggling and wouldn’t calm down easily. We moved out to the rocking chair in the front room where I got him to go to sleep again, but he woke up again around 1:30 and was so fussy and loud that he woke up Jared. This time, his cough started to sound more like croup. I’ve dealt with croup before, but my older ones weren’t as young when they caught it.

So off to the E.R. we went on Tuesday morning. We got there just before 2 a.m. Ryan was obviously in distress and needed some help to breathe. The E.R. doctor agreed, and one of the first things he said was that Ryan sounded like he had croup. Ryan was also reflecting in his breathing (where his diaphragm goes in when he’s breathing instead of out), which is a sure sign that he was working too hard to breathe. They first gave him an aerosol-type treatment (they put epinephrine and saline in a humidifier and put it near his mouth for him to inhale), and also gave him an oral steroid to help open up his bronchial tubes. After an hour or so, and he didn’t start to get much better, they gave him another treatment of the epinephrine. While we were waiting, Ryan and I also took a short stroll outside in the cooler, moist air (it was raining when we went in) because that can also calm down the inflammation and make it easier to breathe.

At about 3:30 or so, Ryan finally fell asleep comfortably in my arms.

This was the first time that he really fell asleep. I snagged this picture of him cuddling with me in the E.R. Ryan was still reflecting, but less than when we first came in. The E.R. doctor wasn’t comfortable with sending me home, however, and wanted to get him admitted. After talking with the on-call pediatrician for Ryan’s doctor, it was decided that he should be admitted.

Unfortunately, the closest hospital to my house with an E.R. doesn’t have a pediatric wing. We had to wait a bit for things to get in order, and around 6 a.m. things got set and we left for the new hospital. (Ryan was doing well enough that I was given permission to drive him to the hospital.)

Just before 7 a.m., we were all settled into the pediatric wing, waiting for pediatrician. And that’s when I had my first experience with a hospital gown for babies. So cute. So sad.

Ryan was clearly feeling better because he started to make some happy noises and smile at me at the hospital. Me? I got maybe 2 hours of sleep (probably less) and an awesome wrist band.

This pretty thing let me come and go at all hours to see my baby. And it also gave me permission to take him home. Jared got to sport one too.

Our pediatrician recommended that Ryan spend at least overnight in the hospital so that they could monitor him.

The red thing on his foot is the monitor. It had the sensor that would read his heart rate and O2 levels to make sure he was breathing OK. It ended up that we basically went to the hospital for him to wear that for 24 hours. He didn’t need any more treatments while he was in the hospital, which was nice. I knew he was feeling better when he wanted to eat again. All night he fought me whenever I tried to feed him. He ate well for the first time since the night before in the pediatric wing.

He was a pretty happy little camper for most of his stay in the hospital. He slept well and enjoyed having Mommy as his near-constant companion. Jared came and traded off with me for a bit so I could go home and shower, and also when I took Timothy to get some frozen yogurt for his birthday. Not exactly how I planned to spend my Tuesday, especially since I was supposed to be home working on a special section. But after a day of being good in the hospital, and having no issues that night, we came home on Wednesday morning.

And Ryan was the happiest little guy I’ve seen when we got home. He definitely was done with the hospital and just wanted to be home. He loved being home. Me too.