My Barking Seal

I was driving to work early this morning when I got a phone call from Tim that caused me to make a quick U-turn and speed back towards home. Israel had woken up with the scary scary stridor noise that comes with croup, crying because he couldn't breathe, unable to drink his bottle because of his difficulty bringing in air. We thought he might have to go to the ER for the second time in his short little life, but Tim flew out to the kitchen to put water in the humidifier, turned off the AC, and by the time I got home he was still breathing noisily but was calm.

I took him in to the doctor later and fussed until she gave me a low dose of steroid for him - I don't care what anyone says, although some say this and some say that, there are studies that show that children with croup who are treated with a low dose oral corticosteriod have a decreased incidence of return to ER visits.

It's just frustrating when a doctor acts a little patronizing towards my "mommy gut"; I, who have had two children go through multiple croup episodes and have seen what has worked and what hasn't for my children - listen to me!!! She did, and so I was somewhat mollified, but sort of annoyed when she instructs me on the way out the door that he will probably be croupy until evening, and I am like "Did you not hear me talk about the fact that my children have both had croup?" She told me about her friend who called her at 2 AM one time whose 2 year old had croup, and he was saying "I -HHHNNHHH. CAN'T-HHHNNNHHHH. BREATHE-HHHNNNHHH." And she was like - "See! He's fine! He can talk! He can breathe!" And I'm like, "Woman, you have not had a child with croup." I am really grateful, though, that she did defer to my concern and let me have what I wanted.

Here is the little Tylenol stained man this evening. Fresh out of his bath, fresh onesie, sputter goes the baby, splatter goes the Tylenol. Sigh. He is still croupy, but sounds a lot better this evening.

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Gabe and I had somewhat of a Mommy and Gabe day today...I've been feeling like we need one. Somehow life gets so busy and all of a sudden the day is gone and I've worked on lots of other projects than my baby boy. We went to the lib'wawy and MallMart together and then all four of us walked to the elementary school and Gabe and I played on the playground together, and we had a "goot time"!! :) What a sweetheart he is.