Well, after 3 1/2 years of motherhood I heard a sound on Thursday night I’ve never heard before while lying in bed. It was so strange and scary when I realized that it was coming from my 7 month old son’s crib. It sounded like a seal barking over and over. I went and got my upset baby and soon he repeated the crazy “cough” and I knew instantly it would be a long night. Then in the morning it felt like the Dr.’s office would never open. Finally they did and gave me 20 min to dress, get him and the girls dressed in the car and over to the office (only 2 blocks away, but still have you ever put a 3 year-old, 2 year-old and 7 month old in a car and gotten them out?) . Well thankfully my sweet hubby stayed home to help me and we got there with about 90 seconds to spare! Fearing the worst like I tend to do I had been watching you tube videos of whooping-cough all morning and researching as many medical sites possible looking for similarities. He had the exact same cough but no strange whistle-like gasp at the end. The dr. (who is amazing and I trust very much) heard the “bark” as she called it and informed me that without the gasp at the end of his fits it was just the Croup. Well being that I’ve never had another child with it, and done no research on this, I at first bombarded her with about 100 questions. Thankfully she is patient and kind enough to sit and explain it all to me and help me know what to do to help my barking but otherwise happy baby.
Well after “tenting” his crib with a humidifier (which I should have already thought to do that Thursday night, since Jeannie taught me this last year when Belle was coughing so much) he improved. Then he started showing signs of what we call in our house velcro syndrome, when your child cries every time you put them down and the only time they seem half-way happy is tightly snuggled in your arms because they just feel yucky. So I knew he was still not ok and had to cancel small groups on Saturday night and miss church on Sunday, since he was telling me he needed 100% of my attention indefinitely.
Monday morning now and the barking is all but gone, his little scratchy voice seems to be the only reminder of the croup… well now after all this my official review of the croup is that I am not a fan at all. Glad my girls never went through this and found myself praying during my quiet time (a relative term in a house with 3 kids) this morning that Noah never does again either! Thankful for our friends and family who prayed for him (and me). Now after an adult-free weekend that Eric worked a total of 27 hours (fri-sun with a lock-in), I NEED some adult time. Hoping to see some of that today or tomorrow 🙂 Happy Martin Luther King Day, especially for all you gov. workers, school workers/kids and phillips workers that don’t have work or school!
My Crazy Blessed Life! 
croup is no fun…javen has gotten it every winter since he was a year old! fortunately it’s usually not that bad and we don’t even go to the doctor because there’s nothing much they do until it gets bad. we take him in the bathroom and steam it up by running the shower all the way on hot. then after about 10-15 mins we bundle him up and go outside to breathe in some cold air (or you can stick your head in the freezer if it’s not that cold out). last year was the first time he had it very bad, and we did end up going to children’s hospital just to get a breathing treatment and oral medicine. hopefully this will be your only experience with it, but from our experience and others i’ve heard of, kids who get it as a baby seem to be prone to getting it at least once every cold season 😦 i especially hate that it always gets worse at night…ugh!
Posted by laura | January 20, 2011, 3:47 pm