Croup Strikes Again

We had another really weird night with a bout of croup. Koen woke up with really bad striker at a little after 2am. It is so sad and scary. I tried the cool mist humidifier, but it is hard for him under such frustrating circumstances (the poor kid really could barely breathe) to stay over the nozzle of the humidifier. So then we bundled him up and took him out on the front porch. He was calm at first, but still struggled to breathe. I took him inside to tell Doug to get ready to take him to the hospital and Koen started getting really frustrated again with the inability to breathe or swallow, so I took him back on the front porch in case that offered some relief. The poor kid, I felt so awful for him suffering like that and there was nothing I could do. Doug and Koen left shortly after for Children's Hospital. Thankfully, our friend, Elizabeth, was on duty in the ER and she must have made sure everyone was very attentive to Koen because they were back around 5:15am (last time I was there about 4 hours). Koen tried to push off going back to bed, but once I got him laid down he didn't make a peep. Today should be interesting as he deals with the steroids in his system. Last time it made him not himself for days. I'm totally not looking forward to that. I didn't sleep well when the boys were gone because my thoughts were with them, when I did finally fall asleep around 4am, Tavin woke me up crying about an hour after, thankfully he went back to sleep, then the boys got home. Ugh. Tavin is currently quite upset about the time change, so I have to go and run and get him. He's been a trooper (up since 7am and not too happy). Really going to be missing the extra help from Gramma and Grampa today!!!
Teddy gets to go on the Children's Hospital adventures (so gross thinking about all the germs, but he is a real comfort to Koen). Here Teddy is enjoying watching the fish tank in the waiting room.
Koen was a big boy (and very practiced at this croup routine). Here he is giving himself the breathing treatment and watching a Thomas DVD on Daddy's computer. We're getting good at being prepared for the long waits at the hospital too.