We called 911 last night.

& it was the most terrifying experience of my 26.5 years of life.


Here is the whole story...sorry if it gets long...

So I fed Holden and put him to bed around 9pm, everything was fine, he was happy and went down just fine. I watched Tabitha's Salon Takeover and went to bed just after 10. Around 11 I hear Ryan screaming for me from Holden's room.

I run in there to find Ryan holding Holden with spit up everywhere and Holden is struggling to breathe. Ryan then told me he heard him on the monitor [Holden's is on Ryan's side of the bed and Henry's is on my side] & went in there to check on him and when he picked him up he threw up everywhere. We started to really freak out because his breathing was so labored and he had the most terrified look on his face. I will never in my life forget the look in sweet Holden's eyes as he was trying to breath. I seriously cry just thinking about it. We rubbed his back and chest to try and calm him to see if that would help his breathing.

We debated for about 2 minutes whether or not we were going to drive him to the hospital or dial 911. Finally I ran to my phone and called for an ambulance. We took Holden downstairs as I was on the phone with the dispatcher- his color was good, he wasn't clammy or warm.

What seemed like forever passed and the police officers were running into our house. They saw him and listened to his breathing and we waited for the parametics. They finally arrived and assessed him [they immediately thought it was croup] and asked us which hospital we wanted to go to. We immediately chose Children's as that was where Henry was taken when he had pyloric stenosis and we felt at ease there.

I grabbed my shoes and cell phone & went with the parametics into the abulance while I called my mom to come over to stay with Henry so Ryan could meet us at the hospital. They strapped me into the stretcher and I held my sweet Holden. They took all his vitals and started a neb treatment. It worked pretty quickly in clearing his airway but it quickly wore off as we arrived at the hospital.

The nurses and doctor were awesome and so caring- being at Children's is such a different experience than being at our regular hospital. They did another neb treatment and gave him some steroids to clear his airway. We stayed in the hospital for about 4 hours and were finally released around 3:45 this morning.

His official diagnosis is croup & they said the steriods should keep his airway clear until the virus is gone. & apparently croup can come on suddenly and it happens most often at night. I had no idea.

I can't even begin to describe the thoughts & fear that was going through my mind. Like I said, it was the single most terrifying experience of my life. There aren't words to describe the feelings you have when your own child is gasping for air and looking at you completely terrified and helpless. & it puts a lot into perspective. I will be hugging my sweet boys a little tighter from now on.

Stupid croup won't bring my happy baby down!

Finally fell asleep around 3am.

My happy boy is back this morning :)

& on a related note...my chubby babe now weighs over 20 pounds. He is just 5 pounds less than Henry :)