Another One for the Baby Book - That We Could Have Done Without

Last Monday seemed like a typical Monday for us. Ryan went to work, we picked up our neighbor's daughter from preschool, Preston went to swimming lessons, I went to kickboxing, Ryan put the kids to bed, and we sat down at 10:00 to watch House. At the first commercial break, we hear a loud, strange sound from upstairs. We assumed it was Preston doing something, so we ignored it. A minute later, we heard it again, and this time it sounded more like Preston coughing. Ryan went upstairs to see what was going on.

The sounds were coming from Cadence's room. Ryan found her on her hands and knees in her crib, very pale, and struggling to breathe. We thought she was choking or possibly having an asthma attack/allergic reaction to something. All we knew was that our baby was struggling to breathe and we had no idea what was causing this.

Ryan called 911 while I got dressed. The 911 operator assured us that Cadence was breathing because of the sounds she was making and she dispatched a paramedic crew. The paramedic crew arrived about five minutes after we called (yay!) and one of our neighbors arrived about a second later, volunteering to watch Preston.

Cadence and I were transported to the hospital while Ryan gathered a few things, made a few calls, and then headed to the hospital. Cadence's oxygen was low so we gave her a little oxygen on the way to the hospital. She did not like this at all so it only lasted a few minutes. She also kept pulling off the tabs they had placed on her body to monitor her. She wasn't screaming, just bothered. I grabbed her blanket before we left the house, which was a great comfort for her, but half-way to the hospital she looked up at me with these pitiful little eyes and said, "ba-ba" because she wanted her pacifier (which I did not have).

Once at the hospital, Cadence was diagnosed with croup. She was given an oral steroid and that seemed to help a lot. After the steroid, Cadence perked up a little and was frustrated by the fact that she was hooked up and had limited mobility.

This was a very scary experience for us. I'd heard of children having croup, but thought that coughing was the main symptom that led to a diagnosis. Cadence had a runny nose that day and the day prior, but had not coughed at all - not even once, until this episode.

After a couple of hours of observation, we were released with instructions to monitor her and follow up with our pediatrician on Tuesday. Thankfully, we had no additional episodes and didn't need additional medication. Cadence was very cranky for a few days last week, rightly so, but now is better and back to her silly self.