So when you decide to have a baby, everyone tries to tell you how hard it's going to be. They all say, "Your life will never be the same." And it's true.
No longer can we sleep in until 2 p.m. on Saturdays.
There's no "movie night" on Tuesdays just because we feel like popcorn and mindless entertainment.
And I don't even know who Conan O'Brien is anymore.
But no one can fully prepare you for the baby's first trip to the emergency room. And it's not like I didn't have runs to the ER as a kid -- A teeter-totter was slammed on my head when I was in 1st grade, thanks Sarah Booher. But when a "quick" ER trip turns into several days in the peds unit at the local 'pital.... that's when you discover how hard it really is to be a parent.
Jack hadn't been feeling good all week. We both knew it. But it seemed like just a cold. A call to the doctor's office told us it sounded like he had croup -- no, no one checked him. They just heard him coughing over the phone. And then the nurse blew us off. He's fine, she said. There's nothing you can do, she said. He just has to get over it.
Thursday night -- around 8 p.m -- he was a disaster. He was sleeping (uncomfortably) and sounded very raspy. His temp got up to 103.1 -- and it could have been higher but he wouldn't cooperate when I was taking it.
Husband paged the doctor. She called back in under 30 minutes. We explained what was going on and held the phone up to his mouth for her to listen. She immediately told us to go to the hospital. It was the temperature that was worrying her, it was the fact that he was struggling to breath.
So we wrapped him up and took off.
We got to the hospital around 10 p.m. (completely forgetting there was a nursing strike going on) and found that the rag-a-bunch hanging out there were watching ER on TV. I found this slightly funny. Jack was very interested in openly staring at the variety of people in the waiting room. He suddenly seemed like he was feeling better. I worried that we'd jumped the gun on the trip to the ER.
We were soon brought back to a bed. Husband thought that was a good sign. But I knew they'd just moved us somewhere else to wait. And we waited... and waited... and waited. Jack was getting tired. And very sick again. He's horrible cough wouldn't stop. His temp had dipped to 102.9. Still not good.
Finally the ER doctor came in to check him. She agreed that he had croup but was concerned about his temp. Croup doesn't usually bring that high of one. She asked for tests, Xrays.
Jack was miserable by this point. He became hysterical when they tried the Xray. They had to pin him down -- the worst possible thing you can do for a very mobile baby. And unfortunately, when he became hysterical, he began to cough uncontrollably. Then he freaked because it was hard to breath. It was horrible!
The doctor decided he needed a steroid shot to help clear the airway. I don't even know what time it was at this point. The baby doctor-in-training came in to ask us the same questions two other people before him had asked. They all decided the on-call peds doc needed to come in immediately.
(Immediately in ER time is two hours apparently.)
They tried to give him oxygen. Hated it. He would not put the mask up to his face. We had to blow it by his face. Very scary. Then Jack started crying. He'd had enough. He continued to cry for a lonnnnnnng time. It was a disaster.
When we finally had him calmed down, the nurses gave him the shot of steroids. It started all over again.
At 3:30 a.m. (after the baby doctor examined him -- the same pediatrician who had been on call the day he was born) we were told Jack would be admitted. They just weren't happy with his breathing. She told us we'd have our room in the next 20 minutes or so. With that, Husband who had a trip the next day he couldn't get out of, decided to run home to rotate the laundry and try to get his things together. At this point Jack was sleeping.
At 4:30 a.m. Jack and I were still in the ER. He'd woken up about 15 minutes after Daddy left and was moaning and crying so loud the old people in the ER were giving us dirty looks. What the hell was I supposed to do? I was pacing, I was rocking, I was humming... It was a mess.
Ten minutes before 5 a.m., I called Husband from our room. We'd just gotten there.
more to come....
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