"Barking" Baby

Quick update. After the ER, Nicky, Doug, Emma, and I found ourselves in an urgent care center less than 12 hours later. Nicky had grown increasingly worse and was in obvious respiratory distress. He had developed a croupy, barking cough with a loud stridor on inhalation. For anyone who's not familiar with that sound, imagine trying to breath in to cough and having someone grab you around the throat and squeeze. The resulting gasping sound is what a stridor sounds like. And in an 11 month old infant, a gasping stridor followed by a spasmodic, croupy cough is not a sound you want to hear. Besides, Emma was coming down with it at this point as well. So, Doug and I figured we might as well have them both checked out again before one of us would have to head back to the ER in the middle of the night. Sure enough, the doctor gave both of them a prescription strength cold medicine (which worked like a charm), and Nicky got a steroid to open up his airway. His pulse ox. was ok, but beginning to drop, so it was clear that he needed something to help him breathe.

We came home, and I managed to get Nicky to fall asleep for a couple of hours on my lap in the rocking chair, after which he woke up having yet another coughing fit. He was miserable and gasping off and on for another 45 minutes or so when he finally fell back asleep from exhaustion. This time, we were camped out downstairs in our oversized chair, snuggled under a blanket. He broke out in a cold sweat (which I usually do when I'm about to "break" a cold or flu), so I figured he might be turning the corner on this one. And despite the sweat-soaked jammies, he slept soundly on my chest for about 4 hours when I finally mustered up the courage to put him in his crib and try to get some sleep myself. With the exception of an occasional coughing fit and some tossing and turning, he slept like a rock until 5:30 this morning. And boy, he needed it. He's still VERY congested, but he no longer looks as though he's in distress, so I'm relieved.

In the meantime, Emma appears to have a mild case of whatever he has, and I'm hoping it stays that way! For this cold and flu season, the score is viruses 3, Galluccios NOTHIN'!

Incidentally, his fall from the diaper changer was nothing but a bad bump on the head. The ER doc and pediatrician said he was fine. Probably more of a bruise to my ego than to his head.