Croup d'Etat

Once again, "Life is what happens...when you're busy trying to write a book."

Thursday night I was going strong on the ubersynopsis and was about another 600 words in, when DH and I became aware of Baby Boy's increasingly loud and labored breathing over the monitor. He'd been kinda lethargic/sleepy when I got home (late, 7 pm) from work, sounded a little congested and was running a low fever. We gave him some Tylenol and put him to bed at 8. Along about 11, he was audibly wheezing on every inhalation (stridor). I went up and held him, thinking that would clear the congestion. But it didn't help, and the few times he tried to cough, you could tell he could barely get air through. It was the tell-tale "bark" of croup. Great.

So we looked it up online and did what any anxious, first-time parents would do: we went to the ER. (I should say that he was really struggling for breath; it wasn't just that he was coughing. I was afraid if we didn't go in, then along about 2 am his throat would close up completely and he'd start turning blue and we'd have to call an ambulance or something.) Thus passed one of the worst nights in our parenting history. We got there at midnight in order to wait 3 hours to be seen, with a gasping, tired-but-can't-sleep baby. He ultimately conked out around 3 am, only for the doctor to finally come in, look him over for about 3 minutes, confirm it was croup, and send nurses in to give him a shot - which really bothered him and made his breathing worse because he was crying so hard - and make him breathe some kind of misty air for about 5 minutes. Then we had to wait 2 hours for "observation," during which I had to incessantly sing and walk the baby to get him to calm down, but it my butt touched the bed he'd start shrieking again. At 5 we asked if we could go home so the baby could sleep in his own bed, and were told the doctor was "on his way." 30-45 minutes later, the doctor popped in again and said he'd get us our discharge papers and a presecription for some oral steroids. You guessed it, another 30 mintues later we finally got the paperwork. Home at 7 am, another hour of singing and rocking to get the baby to sleep, and then we managed to crash till about noon. We're all still sort of recovering from the gross disruption of our schedules, but at least the baby is doing much better. The PediaPred stuff must be working; he slept all the way through the night last night.

Anyway, so everything about the book's been on hold for a couple of days. I'm back at it tonight with a couple of Mt. Dews in me (now that Baby Boy is weaned, I allow myself the really caffeinated stuff) and this time, by hokey, I will finish the ubersynopsis. From Glencoe, onward to "The End"!