Croup stinks.

Charlie is fully recovered from his croup.  That just plain sucked.  I have now seen my husband riding in the back of an ambulance and one of my children.  I never want to do either again.  All day on Dec 26th, Charlie was wheezy in his breathing but nothing too bad and he sounded really hoarse . He didn't have any other symptoms though (no cough or cold or anything).  I put him to bed as usual but my mommy instincts told me I need to sleep with the monitor on super loud so I could hear his breathing just in case.  About 9:30 or 10, he woke up super fussy so I thought I would get him some advil in case he needed it.  Well I went in there and he was really struggling to breath.  At that point I wake Jake up and tell him to hold Charlie so I could get dressed and that I was taking him to the urgent care clinic down the road to get him a breathing treatment.  We were sure that was all he would need and I would be home in just an hour or so.  It was also like 5 degrees outside so super cold!  We get to the clinic and they immediately got us checked in (he weighs 34.5 lbs!) and got him a breathing treatment.  He hated it.  I had to physically restrain him. They also gave him an oral steroid to help reduce the swelling in the airways.  It is supposed to kick in just about the time that the breathing treatment wears off.  Of course though, the first breathing treatment didn't work.  I did manage to rock him to sleep some but his breathing was really rough still so at that point they had to admit him as an ER patient and move us to Children's Minneapolis in downtown.  The dr also wanted us to get a chest and throat xray to make sure they were clear.  I am not sure how many of you have had to get your small children a chest x-ray but they are little torture chambers.  You should google it sometime :D  All of the xrays came back clear so we had to just wait for the ambulance to transfer us.
Now please keep in mind that when I left the house, Jacob was under the impression that we would be home soon and it was no big deal so he went back to sleep with his phone on silent.  I was texting an calling him like crazy trying to get a hold of him to tell him what was going on.  The ambulance came at about 1:30am and as we were getting Charlie loaded, Jake finally called really worried and upset that he wasn't there!  This is one of the times I wish we lived near family.   I couldn't really talk to him though as I was a bit busy.  I will say that taking the ambulance was the right decision because about a mile out he started struggling again.  I am glad I wasn't alone in car with him.
We got to Children's and in our room but they decided against a third breathing treatment so that Charlie could get some sleep but they had him on monitors and would check on us periodically so if he needed help we could get it.  The breathing treatments have a stimulant in it so he would have not been able to sleep for a while after administration.  We finally got all settled and Charlie passed out at about 3:30am.  They had wheeled a bed in for me but of course I didn't sleep.  Every time Charlie moved I was right back at his side in case he needed me.  Plus I was scared he would roll out of the bed.   Cell reception was non existent in the room so the only way I could communicate was email and text.  I was chatting with Jake all night so he knew what was going on.  I missed him being there.  Poor Charlie was so tired that he slept through 3 vitals checks (including even blood pressure cuffs).  He slept until about 9:30 where he woke up feeling much better and breathing way better.  It was a relief.  After some breakfast, we were given the okay to leave.  In the meantime, Jake was trying to get the kids ready to come get us only to find out his truck won't start (my van was at the urgent care).  Awesome.  Luckily, Ben was a trooper and was free to come get us.  It is nice to have good friends willing to help out when you need it at a moments notice.  We were given instructions on what to do at home in case he struggles again and had to use them the next morning.  Other than that though he was just fine!   It is always an adventure with my Charlie-bug!

All ready to get on the ambulance 

Riding in the ambulance

 Finally passed out

 He was so tired. 

 Morning snack and feeling so much better!

 Let's go Mom!

Christmas 2012

What a great Christmas!  We were all super spoiled :)  The kids got all kinds of things!  We got up super early (mostly because of Charlie) and the kids immediately went to open their gifts!  They were super excited and tore through them like crazy!  It was fun to see their excitement with every new box.  I know Jacob majorly spoiled me too.  I got a new infinity necklace, an awesome Harry Potter coffee mug, a Kindle Fire HD, a popcorn popper, mandolin slicer, perfume, and the most special to me - a blog book from my blog for the year 2008.  I cried over that one.  It meant so much to me to finally begin to print out my blog.  Those memories are priceless to me and I love reading them.  I seriously can't look at the book without getting emotional.  Amazing.  Jacob also got me a gag gift - a box of screws.  He did this because when we would ask Will what I wanted for Christmas, he would say some screws and that his daddy wanted a new drill (which isn't true either).  It was really funny and totally threw me off!  Jake got a new watch since his other one broke, a few games & movies, a Roku player, and some super hero clothes from the kids. We finished presents with nice big glasses of cranberry mimosa's and just enjoyed all of our spoils. The kids are still running around playing with all their new toys!  Merry Christmas everyone!

 

My box of screws:

Christmas Eve

We usually go over the the vG's house but we couldn't this year because they had a sick kid in her house (BJ's neice) so instead we had the Baker's come on over!  It was a lot of fun!  We talked nerdy things all around :D  After they left, we got the kids in their matching pj's and put out cookies and milk for Santa along with some carrots for the reindeer.  Will wanted to make sure that Snowflake (our elf) got a cookie so he had me make a sign so Santa would know.  After we got that all taken care of we went upstairs and Jake read the annual "Twas the Night Before Christmas".  Love these family traditions!

Our Gingerbread House

A friend of ours gave us a gingerbread house kit to put together with the kids - very thoughtful of him and super fun!  We actually managed to get candy on the house instead of in their mouths - well most of the candy anyways :D  It was fun!  Thanks Joe!

Making yummies

I thought this was a good easy thing for the kids to make :D  They were pretty good too - although they were not near as pretty as the inspiration.