16 Months old today....but it was a hard day:(

Today has been a hard day for Graham. He went to bed last night with a cough, and woke up this morning wheezing and coughing, and really having a hard time breathing. We went to the pediatrician ans she confirmed that he wasn't feeling well. Seems as though he has a little virus which had turned into a bit of an asthma-like attack. I had asthma as a kid, and still get attacks under certain conditions, and it seems like Graham may be following suit. A lot of kids get asthma issues when they get colds, viruses, etc. Only time will tell us if this is a pattern to expect in the future, but if I were to bet, I would say so. The worst part was at the doctor they gave him an levalbuterol breathing treatment. These do not hurt, I had plenty as a kid, but they do make you really jittery, which I always hated. The other issue, with a baby, they have to wear a mask to get the medication. The nurse brought in the machine, gave us instructions to keep the mask on no matter what for at least 10 continuous minutes. She warned us that he would hate this, and it would be hard for us to watch. She wasn't kidding. I was in tears, Pat held his arms down, I held Graham and held the mask to his face. It was a long, long 10 minutes listening to Graham scream, cry, flail, and just be so incredibly sad. He felt better afterwards, but was so exhausted from the episode, he fell right asleep. Anyway, we have to now do this every 4 hours for at least the next day and see how he is doing. The first time we did it at home, he was still really upset, but was able to listen to Pat read books as I held him. Before bed tonight, I was able to do it myself as he calmed down and was less scared. I am hoping tomorrow is a better day.

Sick update #2

So Graham was fine Friday and half of Saturday. By the end of the day Saturday, he was coughing, snotty, and congested. Not to mention CRANKY! Poor guy. We put him to bed at 6:30 and he slept in until 8 the next morning. Today he was in much better spirits, but still snotty, congested, and coughing. So the fever he had earlier in the week was a sign of things to come! His urinalysis came back clear, and since he was ok for a day or so, I haven't called the doctor again. I think we are just dealing with the last of the winter colds, and a bit of teething to boot! He is really working on the 4 1st year molars. Ouch! I think we will stay home Monday to rest a bit. Though it is hard to get a toddler to relax. The closest I can get is to get him to sit with me and read books, which he loves. But one can only read for so long ! Sometimes running errands is good because at least he sits still!

Sick update

Graham seems to be doing a lot better! His urinalysis came back clear, and his fever was gone within 24 hours. Phew! We are glad that is over!

Sick boy:(

Poor Graham has had a rough day. It started when I went to get him out of bed this morning. The entire crib was soaked. He has certainly peed through a diaper before, but nothing like this. So, we stripped the crib, threw in a load of laundry, had a morning bath, and tried to get on with our day. Graham was completely clingy, whiny and wouldn't eat all morning. He gladly went down for his morning nap. I thought it was just because our day started so poorly, but all he wanted to do was cuddle, as we were sitting after an attempt at lunch I realized he was burning up. Temperature of 102! I called his pediatrician and got him in at 3:45. We had enough time for a nap, which he gladly took. At the pediatrician he was so good, but not feeling well. The Dr. wasn't exactly sure what is going on. Ears and physical checked out, no rash, etc. He gave me these interesting little bags (think vacuum bags) to put over his penis in his diaper to collect a urine sample to bring back in. Easier said than done. The first one got ruined by a poopy diaper. I have one left, saving it for tomorrow morning, wish me luck on that one! Anyway, after Motrin, the fever went down, but by bed time tonight it was up to 103.4. Yikes. Then, as I was giving him his Motrin, he vomited up the only thing he ate all day, blackberries. Poor little guy. He went to bed so easily and I hope it is a restful night. We were going to try a toddler yoga class tomorrow, looks like that isn't going to happen. Hopefully good news tomorrow!

Croup!

Cross you fingers that we do not have a night like last night! Graham has had a runny nose since Thursday, and a slight cough, no big deal....or so I thought. He went to bed happy and normal last night at 7:30, like any other night. Now, keep in mind that Graham rarely wakes at night, and if he does, I hear a little whimper on the monitor, or a quick two minute cry, and that is that. I can honestly say that since I stopped feeding him during the night when he was about 3 weeks old (crazy, right?) neither Pat nor I have really ever ventured into his room at night. I have peaked in to check on him of course, put his blankie back over him, but we have never gone to him in the night because of him crying. I've found that when we hear him cry, if we ignore it, it will stop in less than 10 minutes. He is really good at self soothing, and always has been.
Anyway, around 11pm we heard him start to cry...after a few minutes it just got really bad, and sounded like a horrible panic cry, like he was in pain. We went up to him, and I scooped him out of the crib, and the poor little guy couldn't breathe. He was crying so hard, and couldn't catch his breath. Then he tried to cough and the scariest sound came out. It was like a bark or a seal I thought to myself. Then I realized, Oh my goodness, I have read about this cough in all my baby books! I then was trying to remember what they said to do and all I could remember was to take him outside in cold air, or go in the shower and run a hot shower and sit in there with the steam. Also, in my slight panicky head, I was confusing croup and whooping cough, and couldn't remember which the seal bark cough was associated with, or which remedy belonged to which cough! UGGH. So, instead of thinking to actually look it up, we sat and rocked and tried to calm baby boy down. We gave him water, refilled the humidifier, and after about an hour, it all stopped and he went back to sleep. It was so scary though! They say that when you hear that cough, you know, and well, you really do! Here is a link to some info....http://www.askdrsears.com/html/8/T084200.asp .
In the morning Graham woke happy but snotty. We still called the doctor and he confirmed that we indeed had a "croupy" baby and either of the two things I thought about doing were correct. He said it very well may occur again the next few nights, as it tends to happen at night most often. Hopefully Graham will have a restful night, poor little guy was so stressed last night, it was kind of scary!