Kaedyn has Croup

Apparently I have a lot of catching up to do, but right now, I have just been dealing with family stuff.

With Calahan breaking his arm Friday, we have had to adjust chores (because he can't do ANYTHING right now) and pick up the slack, we've had to make sure he's comfortable, has his arm elevated, ice packs, meds, etc and everything ... which isn't a biggy ...

But Saturday night, Kaedyn started waking up every couple hours coughing, by the time 2 am hit, I realized it wasn't just a COUGH... it was a BARKY COUGH... and any mom (or Dad) out there know what that means...

yep.... the croup!

Dennis was sleeping and at 2am when I had gotten him settled, I had woken him up and told him that next time Kaed woke up, I was going to wake him up to hear how bad he was getting (not to deal with him, I just wanted him to hear it, knowing croupy coughs go away more during the day due to being upright) ... So the next time he woke up, I forgot but when I got back to bed, he said "he does sound bad"... next thing I knew it was 7:30am... and Dennis had gotten up with him the rest of the night .... I found them kicked back in my chair, cuddling... Daddy was asleep, Kaedyn was awake... I went to the bathroom and when I got in the living room he said "someone woke me up cuz he was kickin crazy after seeing Mommy up" LOL... he is a Mommy's boy.

So after doing some research online (times the urgent care clinics open) I took him into the nearest one straight away at 8:30 this morning. There were already 5 cars in the parking lot when we got there! But we got in and got seen relatively quickly. Dr. listened, asked me questions, and said he didn't quite hear the barkyness but that was normal with croup. I said "he has it when he cries" and the DR (jokingly) said "should I make you cry?" and I said "no, I'll do it, it's very simple" ... I just put him on the floor (sitting up) and walked 5 steps away from him. The little lip pop'd out and the face got sad, the tear ducts opened up and the wailing started. After abotu 20 seconds of stepping away from him, the DR said "okay, I heard it" so I took the few steps back to him, scooped him up, and he was right as rain agian!

He gave me steriods to give him (one dose yesterday, and if he had another bad night last night, another one today) but since I noticed it very early, that should be all he needs but I'm suppose to keep an eye out for runny nose & ear infections which are common with croup. If I think he needs it, I have a nebulizer at home for breathing treatments (since both Noah and I have asthma) ... So far he's been really good but he was having a moment yesterday afternoon where I thought, okay if that continues, I'll have to pull it out. Luckily it didn't though.

He did wake up several times early in the night last night, and during then night I heard him barking a bit...

He is usually a rather independent baby where you can put him on the floor and he will play play play and if he wants your attention, he'll come by you - or if I leave the room, he'll just belly crawl his way in there will me and peek around the corner with a big smile on his face. But yesterday he was VERY clingy - it's been a miracle to even get him to play on the floor at my feet, and any time Dennis or I walk out of the room (even if the other one is in it) he cries. He just wants Mom and Dad in his eye sight at all times.

I just hope he gets better! Today is Nathan's 2nd hearing test, got to get Cal in to get his cast on, a bunch of errands to run and that is it. Tuesday is ST for Nate, Wednesday is PT for Nate (they come to the house) ... and Thursday is the last day of school.

So I think I'm going to go ahead and give him that second dose.

Kaedyn Eczema is getting BAD!

I honestly never thought I would be putting Kaedyn in this blog :( He's such a healthy baby, but his eczema has gotten so bad. Now I know that in the true scope of things, his is probably still "mild" but OMGoodness... he just suddenly broke out and it's not because I changed soaps or anything, it was when he started getting baths more often. But he's bigger now and is in need of them! So we've had to start getting "sensitive skin" soaps and we're going to get some hypoallergenic laundry soaps. In hopes that it will help! I have been covering his poor little body in hydrocordizone cream ... and it has gotten a little better. But I think we're going to have to bite the bullet and take him in to a dermatologist to see if there is anything more we can do.

Calahan's Broken Arm

The first broken bone... of my kids... you see. Yeah ... it's been ... an interesting weekend.

Friday night was nice, the weather wasn't hot, it wasn't too cold... so since Noah was over at his friends, and Cal was off on his borrowed bike (Cal's bike has been stolen twice, so we said we weren't going to buy him a new one for awhile, so his friend gave him one of his older bikes - they had fixed it up and such) ...

So Dennis and I decided to put the babies in the "Are they TWINS?" stroller and go for a walk. We live on a long road of duplexes. So we were walking down and we were about a block away from the end of the road when my neighbor's son, and another kid came up to us and said that Cal was hurt and on some one's steps down the road. Well ... we walked down there and Cal was sitting on the steps, a lady and a bunch of little girls around him. We asked him what happened and he said he fell off his bike.

So apparently - the lady saw it all happen but she didn't have a good view. She said she thought he hit the car that was parked, he went over the handle bars and then the bike flew up and when she got over there it was on top of him. She helped him over to her place and gave him her cell to try to call us (not knowing we were actually walking in that direction)

His friend says that he thinks the bike locked up and that Cal flew over the handle bars and then the bike flipped up and landed right on top of Cal.

Regardless - Calahan got a lot or road rash, he hurt his right leg up by his thigh, and I highly suspected he broke his left wrist. Dennis went back to our house, got his car, and came and got Cal, taking him to the ER - then I walked the babies home and waited. (Noah eventually came home from his friends too.)

Calahan at the ER .... see his right leg (thigh area) is twice as big as the left?
Sure enough - he broke something. Wasn't exactly his wrist, but it was his arm right by his wrist area... (they printed off a copy of the x-ray for Dennis to bring home and he folded it!!) The arrows are pointing to the breaks, and the boxes are around them - be broke BOTH arm bones...

He ended up getting a temporary "cast" and sling until Monday when I'm suppose to take him in to get his actual cast and talk to the Orthopedic...
A few examples of his road rash...

See the bruising on his arm (it's not real good)
Cal got moved upstairs and Noah was told he got to sleep in the top bunk so Cal could sleep in the bottom (Cal's room is in the basement, since he bruised the muscle in his leg, he could barely walk) ... luckily Noah's room is right next to the bathroom.
Calahan Saturday morning... unhappy as could be... poor kid :(
They ended up giving him vicodin and ibuprofen for the pain.

So he broke both main bones in his arm right by his wrist (or close to it) ... he bruised the muscle in his thigh on the right side (couldn't walk at all at first, and has been limping since)... and he got a lot of road rash. But it could have been worse! We see the orthopedic today (at lease that's the plan, I'm suppose to call and get something set up as soon as they open) ... and get his cast set.

His hand swelled up VERY VERY bad over the weekend - we've been keeping it elevated, iced, and keeping ibuprofen in him, but it only helps a little. We even called the ER and they said to loosen the bandages a little (but we already had) ... he still has circulation, it's just very very swollen! The ER nurse told us if we couldn't get it to go down to bring him in, but we could get it to go down some, and again, his circulation was fine... so we've just been keeping an eye on it