And it just gets worse...emergency room

So last night as we were listening to Chase breathe, we became concerned. He was breathing fast and hard and there was no way I was going to keep him in his crib, baby monitor or not. Brad carefully picked him up and moved him to our bed. He was sound asleep but breathing loud. I was extremely exhausted after a long day of doctor visits, two 30 min cat naps for him and none for me. So to say the least, I could've hit the pillow and been out...except for I couldn't stop listening to his breathing. As Brad and I lay listening to him, he became restless and woke up. That was the end of sleeping as we know it. I asked for Brad to take him downstairs and rock him in the recliner so that I could get just a few minutes of shut eye. I should've been specific on the time.

Twenty minutes later, Brad wakes me up and says we are going to the emergency room. While I was sleeping Brad became more concerned of Chase's fast, short breaths and called the on-call nurse for our pediatrician. She listened to him and said to bring him in. He was breathing more than 70 breaths a minute, not good.

I dragged out of bed, got dressed and bundled Chase in his car seat while Brad started the car. Did I mention it was the coldest night of the year? Maybe 7 degrees, maybe. As we pulled out of the drive way, I wrapped a blanket around my legs and gave Brad one as well. It was COLD! And then something funny happened, at 1:45 am, Brad and I both started singing "Walking in a Winter Wonderland." We sang the entire first line and chorus, then looked at each other and laughed. I don't think we've ever sang together like that. The whole situation just seemed typical of our life. We never do anything normal, never.

Well, we arrived to the Newark Emergency room and had Chase evaluated. His breathing was almost normal and oxygen level at 97%. He was making a liar out of us. Really exploiting us as first time parents. He played, grabbed at the doctor's stethoscope, jabbered, hated the nebulizer...did I mention it was 2:30 am? The doctor made us feel better saying that the cold will do that. The crisp, fresh air helps to open his airways. So we weren't liars. We finally made it home at 3:30am. But that wasn't the end.

Chase fell asleep in the car all comfortable in his car seat. But since he was running a fever, I didn't want him to be all bundled up so I took off his blankets and tried to loosen his straps. Whaaaaa! Stupid me to loosen his straps. He was having nothing to do with sleeping at this point. Nothing but miserable. I took him down to the recliner and rocked him to no avail. I was going to watch another movie but couldn't muster up the energy to pick one out. So Veggie Tales it was featuring Madame Blueberry again. God must be trying to ingrain my word into me. I wish he would pick a different time of day.

So off to playing with his toys again, at 4:30 am...happy and jabbering. I decided to be productive and to do some work on the laptop. Finally at 5am he seemed tired and we cuddled again in the recliner and zonked out. We were out cold until the dumb, I mean protective dogs, barked and scared us to the death. It was 8am and mom had arrived to watch Chase.

This long night into morning into day ends with us getting a nebulizer to use at home. He isn't eating well, but we have gotten creative in getting liquids into him. As long as he's hydrated and rested I'll be happy. He'll eat when he's hungry.

Now off to bed I go for hopefully some nice zzzzzzzz's for all of us. Exhaustion wears the body down.

(No pics tonight, my computer is in the repair shop (Brad) and that's where they're stored.)