Evan

It has been an eventful last two days for Evan. It started Sunday night when he just wasn't acting like himself. We couldn't find anything wrong with him though no obvious symptoms. Monday morning was the same thing, not himself and his voice was starting to get hoarse, but that was all. Then he woke up early from his nap upset and he felt warm. I checked his temp and he had a fever. He was also still hoarse and he was breathing funny...almost sounded like wheezing. As the night went on he got pretty miserable we sat him at the table for dinner and he just sat there and cried and did not look good. I took him and rocked him and sat with him on the couch...we gave him some ibuprofen to see if that would help. Once it took effect it did help and he started to act more like himself again. He finally ate something right before bedtime and we put him down. He slept great except for one episode where he cried out and coughed a bit, but stopped on his own just as I was getting up to go to him. He slept pretty late that morning, but as the day progressed his breathing got louder and there were occasions where I could see and feel his chest sucking in when he breathed. I was definitely uneasy about it and called a nurse to see if he needed to come in. She said to bring him so we made an appt for the only time they had, 4:40. At this point I still wasn't sure what was going on I was thinking he was just wheezing because of chest congestion. I could always tell where he was around the house because I could hear him breathing. I put him down for his nap around 1:30 and he woke up early again, around 2:30. He was very upset, and when I got him up and held him his breathing was really bad. His chest was sucking in a huge amount, and his neck was sucking in as well. He was even louder than he was earlier. I got him calmed down, but he was still acting miserable and his breathing did not get better, it was very labored and loud. I called the dr to see if I could bring him in earlier than his appt because I didn't want to wait that long. Of course since I told them he was having difficulty breathing they said to bring him. I hurriedly put the boys in the car and off we went. Thankfully we didn't have to wait and the nurse checked his oxygen right away. She left and a minute later she and the dr opened the door and watched him for a minute. The dr looked at the nurse and said "yep" and then they closed the door. The dr came back shortly and did a quick check-up and told me that he had croup and that she needed to give him a breathing treatment and a steroid shot and that she wanted him to stay the night in the hospital so he could be closely watched. She said because he was having labored breathing and the sucking in of his neck even while he was not being active and not upset (which is what the nurse wanted her to see when they poked their heads in) that it was a bad case and she didn't want to send him home with us like that. I was not thrilled about the prospect of staying in the hospital and was honestly surprised she was sending us there because she is not an alarmist doctor, but I was glad when she said it was croup (although I felt a little stupid for not knowing that's what it was) because I knew enough about it to know that it's a common virus and not serious as long as you get treatment. So Evan got the breathing treatment (which was a nightmare trying to keep the mask on his face as he was crying and fighting it the whole time) and the shot, and we left the drs office and headed to the hospital. Mark met us at the drs office after I texted him and told him Evan was going to have to stay at the hospital. By the time Evan got all checked in his breathing was a whole lot better and he was acting like his normal self, although the nurse nicknamed him Darth Vader because of how he sounded. Our time at the hospital was pretty uneventful, the treatment Evan received at the drs office really helped a lot and he didn't need anything else done while we were there. After we had a "Curious George goes to the hospital" type night with evan and emmory running all over the place, eating at the chickfila in the cafeteria, going to see the helicopter, and watching Elmo in the room, Mark took emmory home and I stayed with Evan. Between the thing he had to wear on his toe continually coming off and beeping, getting his vitals checked, and him just not sleeping good, we didn't get much sleep at all, I think we got one stretch of 1hr 45 minutes and that was the longest. It really felt like when we were in the hospital together almost two years ago, when he was a newborn, except I think we got more sleep then! But thankfully he hasn't had any more problems breathing and we got to go home at lunch time. The steroid will last several days so the virus should be gone by then. He has been acting fine since we got home and will hopefully sleep good tonight.