Middle of the night trip to the ER

It was bound to happen; a middle of the night trip to the ER. Once we got home from Atlanta, Luke and Olivia seemed like they were getting a little bit of a cold. We pretty much expected that would happen, especially after being around so many people and babies. The last time we went to Atlanta we all came home with a stomach bug so a cold is a step up, right?

Wrong.

Monday night neither Luke nor Olivia were feeling great, so we gave them a bath and tried to put them in bed a little early. Luke went to sleep pretty easily but Olivia was fighting it until after 9pm or so. Once she fell asleep, Dan and I thought they were tucked in for the night. But around 10:30pm, Luke woke up with a terrible, barking sounding cough. We got him out of bed, settled his cough, and put him back in bed. A few minutes later it started again. We decided to bring him into our room so we could keep an eye on him. He would settle for a few minutes, but then his nasty cough would start again. About midnight, I took Luke downstairs to the recliner thinking that sitting him upright would help. About 12:30, his coughing got MUCH worse and he had lots of trouble breathing. I was halfway upstairs to get Dan and he was already getting dressed for us to go to the hospital. So we got Olivia up (she was so confused) and put them both in the carseats. Off we went...

We got to the hospital about 1:15am and they got us admitted fairly quickly. Thankfully Olivia was sleeping at this point so we could both focus on Luke. They got his oxgygen levels and had us wait for a doctor to come to our room. After about 45 minutes, the doctor came in, listened to his lungs, checked his ears and sent us for an x-ray and RSV test. She was pretty sure Luke had croup and the x-rays were just precautionary. The RSV test came back negative (whoo hoo!), and she gave Luke a steriod and breathing treatment to help his symptoms. Apparently croup is very common and the cough is what scares parent to death. Croup causes an inflammed trachea, hence the reason for the barking cough. It is completely viral, highly contageous, and there isn't much we can do other than the standard humidifier, tylenol and liquid steroid. We left the hospital about 4am, which by this point Luke was fast asleep and Olivia was up and ready to party. Once we got home, neither baby settled down very well, leaving Dan and I to make some VERY strong coffee Tuesday morning! We are so happy it wasn't anything more serious, and after several late nights in Atlanta and several late nights in our future, we are two tired but thankful parents.

Here is a pic from the hospital at about 3:30am. Notice Olivia is now wide awake and Luke is fast asleep!