Our 2nd 911 Call

I think this was our second 911 call. The first being when Sam tried to fly off our bed. Didn’t work, btw.

I know I took G to the emergency room last year when we thought he might have swallowed something sharp but I didn’t call 911 for that. We had called the on-call nurse and she pretty much said we had to get down there if we even THOUGHT he might have swallowed something. We didn’t think he did but we were calling her and so… well, I went down. He didn’t though.

This time was a little more freaky. Of course I have to write it down so I can remember it. 🙂 And now it’s like one of those hazy memories that might not have even happened but when I think back on it my pulse starts to elevate a little.

It was Thursday night and I had gone out to the Brea Improv with some friends (I’ll have to talk about that another time!). I covered G up with blankets around 1030 and went to bed at 11. When I covered him up, he was sleeping on his back which was odd. He also sounded like he was snoring a bit but I just smiled to myself and covered him up.  I went to sleep.

At 12, hubby came in the room and woke me up saying GGs breathing was wheezy. He turned on several lights and put him on the floor. I woke up and got down with them, he had also peed his diaper. As we were changing him, he was very out of it and his breathing was extremely labored. He caught his breath once or twice and we heard a high pitched croup cough but then his breathing was SLOW.

I had my hand over his heart and  hubby was wiping him down with baby wipes and his eyes looked dreamy has he swayed on his feet. I looked at hubby and mentioned that it was concerning and maybe we should just call the on-call nurse to see what she had to say.

Hubby immediately agreed.

Which was weird. I’m usually the one to freak out while hubby pats me on the head and tells me I’m over-reacting. It’s how we work well together. We balance each other out. For him to just agree with me made my jump to my feet and grab my phone.

So I called Dr and she took our information and said she would mark it as urgent so the hospital nurse should call back soon. As we waited, I laid G over my shoulder and rubbed his back.  When you are actually WAITING for a phone call about a sick child, it tends to start your pulse racing a bit.  Plus, when you are actually counting the seconds between the breaths, it’s even worse. Every time there was a few seconds between him breathing, I was bouncing him on my shoulder trying to get him to wake up. He wouldn’t wake up which, although it was midnight, seemed really odd.

The hospital nurse called back in about ten minutes. Maybe less.  She called and asked hubby alarming questions like was he blue (no) and asked to listen to his breathing.  The questions she was asking were alarming.  As she was talking to him, she said something at the end of the call.

He hung up, looked at me, and then the LOOK ON HIS FACE was so alarming. He scrubbed his hands down his face and took a deep breathe.  I asked him if we would be taking him to the ER.  He said, “No, she said to call 911”.

Right then, I started to almost hyperventilate. Griffin was draped over my shoulder like a noodle, we had all the lights on, and had been jolting him around for the past 10 minutes and he still wasn’t moving. He was just trying to breathe.

So hubby called 911 and I called my Mom at the same moment. I figured if something was going to happen, she could stay here with Sam. I made the call and was very calm, although she didn’t hear that I said G. So she wasn’t quite sure what was wrong but she was on her way.

Anyway. We freaked out for a few minutes, hubby was running all around the house and I was trying to get dressed while still hold G at the same time.  We walked downstairs to wait and G was STILL draped over our shoulder.

Of course, the second we saw the fire truck and TWO ambulances come up the street, he raised his head and said, “Fire truck!” and completely perked up.

All the handsome, sweet firemen came in our house and just stood around talking to him. They could see that he was perked up and it was probably a severe case of croup. Since he was okay, they didnt need to take him, they said we could drive him. Especially since Sam was just sick on Wednesday. So they left and hubby took him to CHOC and it was diagnosed as croup and he was given some steroids. My heart was racing for a few hours after that. Sam slept through the whole thing.

Now, croup cough is just a funny thing. I had it when I was a child. Sam gets it once in awhile but when we would get it, we would always be coughing! Griffin never really even showed signs of being sick, much less coughing. He only coughed twice after we had got him out of bed, it was more of a wheezing.  I really think it should be named differently!

Although, if it does happen to your child, bring them out in the night air. We heard that from the paramedics and it seemed to help G.  He did get a badge and a hat for both him and Sammie.

The whole thing was relatively quick (in minutes – but not in my head!). I called my Mom and she lives about 13 minutes away. By the time she got dressed and had driven over here, they had came, talked, left, and Justin was getting in the car to leave.

I feel so thankful that my child is okay, that we have such a quick response with our fire department in any emergency.  I’m really counting my blessings after that scare.