Baby Blase

We were about to revoke the kid’s Awesomest Baby In The World award (which he received last week in a momentous celebration for his brilliant portrayal of a perfect baby human - after finally getting used to the nanny) when, on Sunday night, the kid woke from his usual all-night slumber at 2:30, 3:30, 4:30, 5:30 & 7:00. We were puzzled by this sudden shift in behavior and mistakenly blamed it, as I’m finding most parents do at this age, on teeth. He was slightly more fussy on Monday when we headed out for a double date with the Lewis’ to Uchi while the nanny turned babysitter-for-the-night watched him. But, that night at 2:30 he awoke with a screech, screams, and barking-seal coughs. Marc brought him upstairs to me where I tried to nurse him to no avail. The screaming continued along with a terrible horse-wheezing and more barking. Marc and I panicked and with our brilliant 4-month experienced parenting minds we decided that his throat was dry… yeah that’s it! So I dipped my fingers in water and rubbed them on his tongue. Needless to say, that was not the solution. He finally calmed down and Marc called the nurse-line at the hospital and she informed us that the kid had the croup. Per the nurse’s advice we steamed up the bathroom and sat with him in there for 15 minutes then took him outside to the cold night air and then packed him up for Baby’s First Trip To The Emergency Room.

At 3 in the morning the emergency room is quiet and the people are happy to see a beautiful baby boy rather than, I suppose, a bloody crack-addict, so we were treated like long-lost friends who flew in for a weekend visit. The kid was given liquid steroids and respiratory treatment in the form of cool mist vapor and then epinephrine vapor. 3 hours, 4 diapers, 1 doctor, 2 nurses, 1 respiratory specialist later we were headed home with a sweet, tired little boy.

We followed up with a trip to our regular doctor who wasn’t satisfied with the half-consumed liquid steroid we got in the ER so she ordered a shot of steroids to make sure that we didn’t have another night of this. Last night he was a little fussy and only slept OK, but, he woke up pretty darn happy at 9 with a little bit of a sniffle, as “the croup” has turned into a cold. The kid’s Awesomest Baby title is intact as he has been so incredibly good throughout this experience.

Listening: Spoon