The All Nighter

Long time no talk. So here I am on my chair, which has served as my bed for the last week or so, listening to the sounds of a soothing heartbeat from a little device hooked over the side of the basniette and from within the basinette itself, the congested breathing of my second born. It's been a long night. Ok, why lie. It's been a long couple of weeks. I had the hernia surgery on Nov. 5. More to come about that huge mistake later on. Right now all I am caring about is this little human lying next to me. I must admit I am impressed by my power of resolve to stay awake with Brendan. One would think this would be a difficult task given the amount of totally sedating drugs I have had pumped into my system in the last 24 hours. But motherhood trumps morphine and here I am watching his little chest rise and fall in the dim light from the television set. Little man is so congested I am a nervous wreck and felt the need to keep an eye on him all night. I keep checking his breathing my lying my hand on his chest in those rare moments I can't hear his raspy breath. When he has cried tonight he was been hoarse. I am pretty sure his throat must hurt, I want to make sure he is getting enough air, that he isn't turing blue around the lips or fingernails. He is still so little that I decided he needed someone to watch him close. That someone of course, would be me. To make this easier, I started by staying up until 12:30am before I even sat down with him. We followed the WebMD protocall after Dr. Mom (that's me) diagnosed B with croup. I could be wrong but I doubt it. This is the second night of fits of "barking" coughs. First night there was only one fit and it was very short. I was hoping it was a freak thing. Nope. Tonight there have been many. I will be taking this sweet thing to urgent care as soon as they open up. He has no fever, his mood is great. He is that same cuddly, smiley, awesomely mellow baby we've been eating up for the last three months. But boy does he sound horrible now. Some of these sounds coming from him sound so loud and so foreign to his sweet gurgle and coos that it is pretty alarming. We've done the steamy bathroom thing, the humidifer thing, the baby Vick's on feet and chest thing, the temperature taking thing, the propping upright thing, the saline and nasal aspirator thing. Not a lot of relief so far. At the moment he is sound asleep and I am glad he is resting peacefully. I know I have catnapped here and there. I sat my alarm on my cell phone to go off every two hours so I could check on him in case I dozed off. Turns out I didn't need it. I have been awake every time it has gone off. The house is pretty quiet. Daniel and James are sleeping soundly. I am hoping James sleeps late so that I can grab a quick nap once Daniel gets up. So please everybody think of Brendan today. Will be back soon to let you know how he is and also to catch up on things over the last week or so. Take care everyone!

Wouldn't you pull an all nighter for this guy?