Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Croup-y Day...

Well, after yesterday morning's wake up call of a horrible tummy mess and a bath, we thought we might spend the day in our jammies. Apparently, the universe had other plans for us (as is usually the case around here). James woke up in the middle of the night Sunday night with a barking cough. You other mamas are nodding your heads, "Yes, I know what that means!" He had no other symptoms at all, but like I mentioned before I want to nip illness in the bud IMMEDIATELY this week so I put in a call to Dr. W.'s office. When I talked to Nurse S. later in the day she asked me to bring him on in so we headed to the doctor's office at 2:30 yesterday afternoon.

We went through the usual business of temperature, weight, pulse, etc. before we spent a few minutes playing the monkey game on my phone while we waited. I think there was really only one other patient in the whole office. It was fabulous. Dr. W. came in and listened to him quickly and immediately said, "Croup!" Exactly as I thought. That barking cough can't hide from me! We got loaded down with a prescription for Prednisone and a cough suppressant. I did ask while we were there if I had a baby and he still sounded like a seal if the hospital would let him visit. His answer was, "Yes!" Woohoo! (Our doctor is wonderful at not being overly dramatic about anything. He realizes that second babies can't be shielded from germs like the first can. I realize that the hospital has to take precautions but the minute you let us go home James is going to be all in his face!)

While we were there Dr. W. asked that I please go ahead and have the baby today. He'll be out of town for the remainder of the week. Ha! My doctors need to get on the same page since my OB is out of town now and will be back next week. Oh well. The full moon is tonight so it might still happen!

As we were leaving, I chit-chatted with the lady parked next to us about James and the new baby, etc., etc. I think I learned her life story - I even know how old she is, her daughter is, and her grandson is! She had short, white hair and was definitely on the larger side. As I got into the car James said, "Mama, is that Ho-Ho-Ho?" SANTA! Oh my word. I am so glad our doors were closed. I guess we've entered the they'll-say-anything stage. I'm sure my face was red even though I knew she couldn't hear. Whoops!

This morning's wake-up call was better than yesterday, but still no fun. Medicine is a two-person project around here. One of us has to hold James and the other has to squeeze his mouth and squirt the medicine down his throat. We do so much better with chewable anything. (The doctor and pharmacists are shocked by this!) The steroid he has to take is TWO TEASPOONS once a day. Thank goodness it's just once a day. That's two whole squirters! He also has to take a cough suppressant four times a day. Miserable for everyone. *Sigh* I'm getting this medicine in him, though!

The list continues today! I am 39 weeks pregnant today and Baby Brother could make an appearance at any time! We have a whole list of things to do, appointments to go to, and visitors stopping by just this week if I don't have to go to the hospital. If I make it through this weekend it will be the LAST one with just the three of us. That is so strange to me!

Everyone keeps asking how James is taking everything. It's obvious that he knows that things are changing, but he's actually acted a LOT better lately. Maybe we're getting past the terrible-twos hump? I keep hearing three is worse, but so far the second half of two is MUCH better than the 17 months-2.5 years stage. :) He is SO excited about having a baby. I know he has no idea (none of us do!) but he asks to go in Baby Brother's room several times a day and lately he's been very insistent that he needs to "see" Baby Brother and "hode" (hold) Baby Brother. "I needa hode him!" is a common statement these days. I let him help me pick out two wubbies yesterday while we were out and about for him to give to Brother when he's born. He was really excited about that, but he did ask to keep one for himself. Guess I need to get them monogrammed! :) I know there will be challenges, but I'm enjoying the excitement for now!

2 comments:

Amy said...

C'MON BABY BROTHER!!!!!!!
hope james feels better soon! :)

Anna Catherine said...

Well, James did say baby brother was coming on Wednesday. He didnt say which Wednesday though!