What Now?!

Last week practically everything possible went wrong with our cars. We had to spend about $500 that we really didn't have on Mike's car only to have them tell us it'll need another $500 very soon. We'll know when it stops holding coolant. We assume we'll be ok until we get our tax return at least. Right? Guess what started leaking 3 days later?!

We got a new ( used) tire for my car because the radials were starting to show and it has to last until we get a van after we get our tax return. But because of the other issues with that car ( hello heater!) I'm trying not to drive it much. But when mikes car started leaking we decided he'd just start driving my car and I just wouldn't leave the house. Ever. Great plan, right?

Silas had a cold this weekend. Nothing too terrible, nursed less because he was stuffy, had to hold him most of the night so he was propped. Not that big of a deal.

Then last night at 4 am. He coughed. Not just any cough. The "sounds like a barking seal cough". It was a quick one but I knew as soon as I heard that sound. Croup. Ugh. I can't believe it's back. I can't believe I have to listen to my sweet baby go through that. At least with Eli he understood when we'd talk to him during a coughing fit. But Silas won't understand. I know the 2nd and 3rd nights are typically the worse. I'm not sure if last night even counts as the first. If Eli hasn't just had it I probably wouldn't have even thought much of that cough. It's gotten worse during the day and he's coughed a little but not too much. I am so hoping he doesn't have it as bad as Eli did. He doesn't have a fever so that's a plus.
His " voice" is getting raspy and when he laughs or cries you can tell he has it. The nurse said if he gets a fever or other symptoms to bring him in but otherwise it's viral so we'll just do what we did before.

Of course, once I knew he was sick I didn't want to be stuck without a car so we took mike to work this morning and we'll pick him up tonight. I'll probably do it again tomorrow too and maybe Wednesday because I just can't be here without a car with a sick kid. I'm already anticipating a sleepless night. Lets hope I'm wrong!





We got a new used tire

Oh croup!

It's been a long weekend!

Saturday night was the worst and Eli and I were up a lot! In and out of the steamy bathroom. Sunday he was pretty good during the day and the only time we had to run the shower was after he woke up from a nap. Every time he woke up it was the same - he'd start coughing, couldn't breathe very well, would start crying cause he was scared and then it would get worse. It was so scary for all of us! You'd think it would get easier to see him like that but it didn't. Luckily it only lasted a few minutes after we were in the bathroom and leaving the steam to the cool house would finish helping.

I tried taking him outside in the cool air a few times but that made him mad! Steam worked better for him. Last night we did the shower at 11:30pm and that was it got the night! He still woke up quite a few times coughing a little but it wasn't nearly as barky sounding and didn't last. He's acting pretty good today. I'm hoping at least by Wednesday he can go back to school ( fevers been gone since Saturday).

I've been sleeping on the couch since this started. Silas starts in the crib and then always comes in our bed. We tried to get Eli to sleep with Mike but he wanted me so Silas and I slept on one end of the couch and Eli at the other. I'd sleep with Eli to hold him until Silas would wake up and want to nurse then I'd go back. It has not been very comfy for me! I'm really hoping he can go back to his room tonight! I'd love to sleep in my bed :)

He still has a pretty raspy voice and looks like he doesn't feel well but hopefully tonight is another good one!

Croup

Eli came home from school Thursday looking like he was getting sick. I could tell by his eyes and assumed it was another cold. He had a slight fever later and asked to go to bed around 6! He woke up crying and saying his throat hurt. By this time I assumed it was strep and knew we'd head to the doctor in the morning.

He woke up around midnight coughing a lot. I didn't know much about croup but had heard it sounds like a barking seal. Yep, it really does. It was so scary for all of us. He had trouble breathing and was crying which made it worse. His voice had been raspy earlier and with the coughing we could hardly understand him. We turned the shower on hot and sat in the steamy bathroom and that really helped. It seemed all gone once we left the bathroom and the cool house air hit him too. He had some Tylenol since his fever had went up and within 20 minutes he was acting silly again.

This was our first experience with croup and it really is awful. Silas had an appt for shots at 9:30 Friday morning so I called to see if someone in the office could see Eli. We got an appt but it was at 10:50 so we had to hang out at the office for awhile. We didn't eat breakfast so I let him pick out a donut in the coffee shop. He felt so bad he even fell asleep on the bench in the lobby :(

We saw a doctor we'd never seen before and she was great! Croup is viral so she didn't want to just give him antibiotics if it wasn't needed do we decided to just watch him for a few days and see what happens. Especially after knowing how long he was sick before Christmas we thought it might take a while. She thought some of his symptoms were kind of different - he didn't start off with a cold which is typical for croup. Since its a weekend and she was kind of concerned she ended up giving me her cell phone number to call if I had questions!!! Wow! Not many doctors will do that nowadays! And our offices/ hospital have a nurses line to call so this really isn't typical at all. I don't know if I'd even call her but its still nice. She said if he's not better by Monday or Tuesday to call back and they'd call him in an antibiotic.

For now we just hope he gets better soon. He hasn't had too many bad coughing fits but when he does they scare him. We've sat in the steamy bathroom a lot and we hardly got any sleep last night ( I'm pretty sure he got a lot more than me though!). We've also done a few breathing treatments- something we hadn't done in 2 years! This morning he was feeling well enough to get off the couch and actually play! He took a nap later and the fever came back but I'm seeing improvements already! I really hope he isn't sick as long as we was last time!