Rebecca the photographer and April's 1st bout with croup

 On Sunday Rebecca took these pictures: 

Peter had just gotten back from California the night before and we were all just enjoying our Sunday. 

Will had been running a low-grade fever for a few days and I assumed it was just a passing virus because he was only warm at night and he had no other symptoms. This is the only picture he looks flushed in.

Here he is in a little nest Rebecca built on my bed so she could contain him while she played on the computer. His eyes were starting to look a little red at this point. I think it was about 4pm here. Over the next few hours he developed a pretty good wheezing noise and his breathing seemed too fast. Peter and I started to worry so around 8:30 that night I called a woman in our ward who is a pediatric nurse and she had us count his breath sounds in a minute. They were about 40-45 and she said to start worrying when they reached 50-60 or his temperature reached 101. Though neither of these things came to pass he gradually grew worse through the night and I was able to guess what he had thanks to the internet and remembering friends who told me about their experiences with croup.

That night I got zero sleep and Will didn't get much more. I was up all night making sure he was breathing in and out. Thanks to his $5000 deductible I wanted to wait to take him to the doctor until the morning if I could. I found myself walking up and down the street in front of our house with him in the frigid air at 3am to help ease the cough. I was the first one to call at 8:30 when the pediatrician office opened. Thankfully they got me right in and gave him a steroid shot to ease the inflammation. 

Now I can say I know lots more about coup then I did before. I also learned about stridor-- the nasty noise his breathing made that sounded like he was choking-- which was freaking me out all night. The doctor was very understanding and said that it can be very scary to a parent experiencing it for the first time. I think I would still be scared even if I had been through this before.

For the record I take this kid almost nowhere right now. Not to the store, not to the school, not even to church most Sundays (and when I do it is for Sacrament only and then I immediately leave.) Who knows how he got it but I can't help the fact that I have four children in public school exposed to who-knows-what all day.

He's still getting through it but seems to be mostly back to his curious and very squirmy self. The stridor was back some today because the steroid has worn off but it is a lot better than it was before. I just hate the sickness. Who doesn't? This is the hard part about having babies.