Gender reveal + Croup

Why do I make such beautiful faces....

Friday night was the night we've been waiting for! We found out that our Baby Dos is a BOY! We were surrounded by family and friends as we cut into the cake to reveal the bright blue color. It was pretty shocking because I am NEVER right, and I called that it was a boy since day 1. We are about 99% sure that his name will be Jackson, but we haven't picked out a middle name yet. Will is really excited, except he keeps calling my belly "Baby Jacob," which is our friend Jamie's little boy. However, with all the excitement did come some hormonal pregnant craziness... I tossed and turned all night worrying about how I was going to show both of my boys equal love, and make this second son just as special as the first. And, I have to admit that I got a little sad knowing that this is probably our last kid and I'll never have a little girl to wear a State cheerleading outfit, or braid her hair, and have Michael walk her down the aisle. Luckily, my husband has had a lot of practice with my craziness and knows how to deal with me.. he let me vent and get it out, and then he said.. "if you decide you want to try again, we can. We have time.. we're still young. But, you might have these two boys and love every second and not want another." So, at that point I was like.. you're right, and I put on my big girl panties, got over it, and got into the excited mode of planning for another boy :)

ANNNNNND then the fit hit the shan. Will started coughing, had a fever, and then threw up. This was t-minus 1 hour before we needed to leave for the NCSU vs. UNC game (which we won - shut out style.. 5 yrs in a row.. little brag. and, I'm done.) so we had to quickly make a decision as to what to do.. we took him downstairs with Michael's family and he seemed fine.. jumping on the air mattress.. being his usual cute self.. so we went to the game. By the time the game was over, his fever had skyrocketed, his cough got worse, and he wasn't really eating. We just kept feeding popsicles and giving him TLC. Saturday night, his fever was back up to 104 and he woke up being a lot worse. His cough sounded like baby seals.. which apparently is the key indicator of Croup -- a lung virus that also causes swelling in the throat. We didn't know this OBVIOUSLY. He was still acting normal but figured that afternoon that we should call the triage nurse at Will's pediatricians office to see what they say to do. Once we did their recommendations and it didn't help, she suggested we go to urgent care to get him checked out. The verdict there was that it was an upper respiratory infection and she barely mentioned croup. She prescribed an antibiotic and a steroid. We got home around 3:30 and gave him some Tylenol and a little food. Starting at 4 he was hysterically crying which made his cough worse. Finally about 4:30 he nodded off for a little while. When he woke up, we tried to give him some Advil, and it ALLLL came back up. He was burning up, wasn't drinking anything, and was crying like crazy. We decided he needed to go to the ER.. Within 2 seconds, the nurse goes "oh, he's got CROUP." Which is a virus -- can't be treated by antibiotics.. and the steroid the P.A. prescribed isn't even the right one to do for croup. Jerk.

They got him in a room, and did a breathing treatment, gave him some Advil, and a better, longer lasting steroid to help with the swelling which was causing labored breathing. He went to sleep and we stayed for about 2 hours for monitoring.


When it was time to leave, he was like a new kid -- smiling, breathing, talking.. it was so refreshing. We got home, went to sleep, and needed to check on him around 1am to see if he needed more Advil... and that was the end of the good stuff.. we were up until 4 figuring out what would make him happy.. which apparently nothing worked.. we finally just turned on the tv and waited until he passed out. Needless to say, I am not at work today.

He is doing better this morning -- still a little grumpy and coughing some.. but he did eat some muffins and drank some milk.. so maybe we're on the upswing!