The First Rule

When Aubree was less than an hour old, she stopped breathing.  I was holding her, and Mark and my mom were standing right next to me admiring this beautiful new person.  "Hmmm," I said, "her hands are blue....  Wait, her face is turning blue!"

A nurse walked in and I called to her.  She calmly walked over, but when she saw Aubree, her eyes got big, and she quickly grabbed her and started rubbing and moving her around.  Aubree responded by gasping, and quickly regaining her color.  Somewhere, we have this whole scene on video.  Even knowing the final outcome, it's still fairly terrifying to watch.

This experience prompted Mark and I to implement the First Rule in our family: You must keep breathing at all times.  

Baby Blue

 Last month, Bryce decided it was his turn to try to push the limits on rule #1.  Early, early in the morning of the Sunday of our Primary Program, he woke up with a terrible, barky cough and a fever.  "Bummer," I thought, "it stinks he's going to miss the primary program!  He was really looking forward to it."

Mark stayed home with him, and by the time the rest of us got back from church in the afternoon, Bryce had totally lost his voice.  As his breathing became more and more labored, I decided to give him a dose of Graham's Albuterol.  Within five minutes, Bryce was sitting up, happily whispering, "Mom, I can talk again!"

His improvement didn't last as long as I'd hoped.  Well before the time lapse necessary for a second dose, Bryce's breathing returned to being extremely labored and wheezy.  When he could get air enough to cough, it was the classic Croup cough, and made him vomit.  

Six year-olds getting croup??  Especially six year-olds with no history of any respiratory issues??  I made a few phone calls and found out that other big kids like Bryce had similarly been struck ill  recently.  

We decided to watch him carefully, have him sleep with us, and continue to give him breathing treatments at the appropriately spaced time.  Thankfully, by the next morning, he showed marked signs of improvement, and was able to breathe again.  

At that point, my big fears turned to Graham.  If the croup hit big, strong, very-rarely sick Bryce this badly, what would they do to little, respiratorally-challenged G?

A few days went by and I thought we might be in the clear, but then Thane got a fever and the classic barky cough.  Though he lost his voice, Thane's breathing never became more than just slightly wheezy, and he recovered pretty quickly.  I should add that Thane is a very pleasant sick kid.  He's calm and sweet and compliant and... it was kind of a nice change.

Miracle of miracles, Graham avoided getting any respiratory issues at all!  He did get a cold, but that was it.  Hallelujah!