Sanderson Family: December Part 2

So it's the Saturday before Christmas. On Tuesday Charlie sounded a little croupy, but not as bad as he usually gets (he finally must be growing out of it-hooray), then Wednesday night when I laid True down he sounded like he was starting croup. Now croup has never been really bad for Ben and Charlie, but they never had it this young. So, after I laid him down I did called our pediatrician and asked if I could give True some of the meds (prednislone) we have on hand when the kids do get croup or I also have an inhaler with an aero-chamber (basically a mask that covers the nose and mouth of toddlers so they will get the full dose of albuterol), but she told me that without seeing him she wouldn't recommend using the meds. Since I know he had croup I would have considered giving him the prednislone, but it was prescribed for Charlie and I didnt' know what the dose would even be for a 9 month old. I did call Katelyn, my nurse sister, and asked her about the albuterol and she said it would be find to give him a treatment. So we did try that, but it didn't seem to help much.So I was on guard all night long. At 10:30 I went in to check on him and he had strider (heavy breathing and croup cough) so I brought him in bed with me. I HAVE NEVER LET ANY OF OUR KIDS SLEEP WITH US BEFORE. But once I brought him in bed he was like, "hey guys, what's going on (deep, loud breath, deep, loud breath) and rather than laying down he crawled all over us - no one was getting any sleep. So, I laid him back down in his bed. Well, an hour or so later he coughed and it was loud and seal like and it woke him up and he cried. I got him up again and took him into the very cold sunroom and held him wrapped in a blanket until the loud breathing stopped and his cough went away (about 45 minutes with the slider open-burr). I laid him back down, and tried to go back to sleep. About 20 minutes later he coughed, woke up, cried, I went in and held him, repeat, repeat, repeat....I think I got 3 hours of very broken sleep that night. The next morning I took him in to the doctor and shocker he had croup :) we got the meds and he slept fine the next night. We also have been avoiding people and germs like the plague because the stomach flu is going around again this year and we are DETERMINED to not get it so we can go down to my parent's house for Christmas. The kids and I have been washing our hands like crazy, wiping down grocery carts thoroughly and changing our clothes just for good measure when we get back to the house after being out.

So back to "it's the Saturday before Christmas"....all the kids seem fine and we feel like we should just leave for my parent's house a little earlier than planned to get away from the crazy stomach flu that is still getting to people. So we get packed up and head on down. We stopped for dinner and Ben started acting a little funny. He didn't want to eat his food...which if you know Ben, you know this is bizarre because that kid eats and eats and eats. We load back up in the car and he says his stomach hurts and that he's cold. I try to play it cool and just say, "it's ok buddy just try and sleep". Dave wraps him up in his blankies. About 20 minutes before we arrive at my parent's house Ben says he still doesn't feel well. My hope is that once we get out of the car he'll be fine, and for all I know the poor kid has indeed inherited my terrible carsickness (please Lord let it be carsickness and not the stomach flu). We get out of the car, give hugs to my parents. It's 10 so the kids are tired, but kind of wired because we finally made it. Ben sits on the couch with Dave and throws up. UGH!!! I want to cry. After all the hand washing and being so careful. So we get him cleaned up and Dave and I decide that I'll sleep with True and Charlie and he gets to sleep with Ben in a different room. I slept terrible with True and Charlie (True turns a lot and the sound of him sucking on his paci is like water torture!) Dave however looked fresh as a daisy the next morning after his full night's rest. Apparently Ben just had a genuine belly ache - bah!!! I kept Ben and True home with me while Dave, Charlie and my parent's went to worship services Sunday morning. I was so glad he was fine and we didn't have worry about the stomach flu! Over the course of 24 hours the rest of the kids, sisters and husbands arrived. It was a full house with 8 adults and 8.5 kids (Jenny's pregnant). It was a crazy, but it was fun.