Our First Hospital Trip and Rolling Down the Windows

So about two weeks ago we had an eventful night.  Chase went to bed as usual.  Cory and I woke up around 1:30am to a strange sound in Chase’s room.  We ran in there to find Chase, awake gasping for breath.  Without even thinking, we grabbed Chase, still in his Scooby-Doo pajamas without shoes or underwear on, threw him into the car and drove to the Emergency Room. While on the way to the hospital he developed a strange barking cough in-between gasps for air.   

Luckily, we live close to the hospital so the dash to the ER was short.  We ran our little nugget inside and they rushed us back to a room where a doctor met us and assessed the situation.  Chase was so panicked that he followed all instructions and was a great patient- at this point.  (We are actually contemplating telling Chase he is dying when we have his 5 year check-up next year to save us some humiliation and win some cooperation from him.  That wouldn’t be bad parenting would it? I guess I have almost a year to tackle that moral dilemma.)  It turns out that Chase had developed Croup. (Croup is an infection of the upper airway, generally in children, which obstructs breathing and causes a characteristic barking cough.) The treatment for this is a nebulizer.  As you can imagine, my precious little nugget was less-than impressed with this and in true Chase fashion, this experience was anything less-than normal.  As it turns out, I ended up doing the nebulizer treatment on him in the hospital bed because the nurse was laughing too hard to hold the devise properly.  According to the nurse, She,“had never seen a child try to ninja kick a nebulizer attached his to his face before.”  Strange.

(On a side note: Sitting in the hospital really makes you start wishing you didn’t let your child win so many battles. Ex: While there, I kept wishing that I had actually made my child wear underwear to bed, or pajamas that fit, or cleaned out his ears this month.  Or that you actually wore a bra to bed that night.  You know, those totally rational things that are appropriate to be thinking about when your child is gasping for breath.) 

Anywho, one day resting at home with Mommy and Daddy did the trick and he was up harassing life again in no time.   

Doesn't everyone take a selfie at the hospital nowadays? Apparently Chase needs a "snacky snack" at 3 am and I am overly perky.  Poor Cory. 

On a completely unrelated note: While Chase and I were driving in the car the other day, I asked him if he wanted his window rolled down.  His response: “No, I didn’t fart.”  Apparently in our family, we only roll down windows if someone passes gas.  And looking back, that may be accurate.