The Carter Family Chronicle: Christmas-time Croup

This holiday season has been, of course, such a blessing. We have been able to share several mini-Christmases in addition to the large O'Donnell one down south. After a foreboding evening weather update, we decided to pack quickly and head out. About 2am Chase and I looked at each other wondering if hauling three heifers in the freezing rain through the middle of the night was the right choice. Turns out it was, as 287 was closed a few days starting that morning.

We stayed a day with my uncle and his lovely family before continuing on to Rosanky. I love Christmas because it really is the one time all my sibling can coordinate a visit. All but one of SR's cousins made it out for a day. It is fun for me to see them interact. Court, Marshal and Grant are SO hands on with him. They enjoy him, and he runs after them trying to pull himself into being carried. The age difference is not new to me, but this new perspective is!

Wagon rides, berries, stealing ice from GG and making Grampa read to him on the floor seemed to be the routine. Our last night there, Bug started with a honking cough. The next morning he looked real crummy and had a temperature of 100.5. Chase and I decided to head out early, swoop into my uncle's to load the bull and just keep trucking. By Childress, he got into a coughing fit and started with stridor and felt super hot to me. As a first time mom, I called his pediatrician after hours. She said sounded like severe croup and to head straight to the ER in Amarillo, so there we sped.

By the grace of God, the nurse swooped us up at admittance (6-8 hour wait) to get his temp down and oxygen saturation up. Since he didn't respond great to breathing treatments and steroids, we got to spend the night. I have a whole new sympathy and utter awe for parents and their babies in the hospital. In the spectrum of illness, we were on the mild end. Thank God thank God for the amazing and compassionate doctors, nurses and staff at Northwest, and all the hope and healing they bring for those families.

So these are lessons I have to share:

don't underestimate the joy a little kid can bring to Christmas
own an accurate thermometer
if the doctor tells you to cure diaper rash by not diapering them, isolate them on tile and buy stock in Resolve
pay attention to serving size if your pajama pants are tight. i.e. a sleeve of oreos is NOT one serving
only the best husband would pack up his family before an arctic storm and haul three heifers 9 hours in the middle of the night so he can spend extra days with his crazy in-laws
don't bet in poker or washers against the eldest brother
running after a 14 month old with scissors to cut hair sends a bad message
pulling a toddler's mullet into a pony tail and chopping it off is not a becoming haircut