Even Earlier

THE BARKING COUGH
Had I known I'd have been up even earlier this morning, I might have tried harder to go back to sleep on Saturday morning. The first time Hamilton woke me up was 12:30 am on Sunday; he was crying and coughing. I went in to calm him, and I realized his coughing was worse than it's been the last week or so. He quickly calmed down, stopped coughing, and began breathing more easily while lying on my chest in the glider. Back to bed he went just a few minutes later.

At 5 am he woke me again with more crying and coughing; only this time his coughing was much worse. He was also having trouble breathing, with each breath sounding ragged. So into wake Mr. Morgan we went, and half an hour later we three were on the way to the emergency room. (We weren't sure why Hamilton was having trouble breathing, since he'd been fine all day. But, he'd eaten shrimp for the fish (ha!) first time Saturday night, so part of me was afraid he might be having an allergic reaction.)

THE TOO-EMPTY ER
With few cars on the road, we arrived quickly at Trident to an empty ER-waiting-room. One problem: It was also empty of nurses to check us in. Hamilton was breathing better by this time, so I wasn't frantic; but I probably would have been if he was any worse. The security guard came out after a few of my shouts of "HELLO!!" He told me the nurse should be back soon, which is not reassuring when I've just come to the ER in the wee hours of the morning with my little one.

Eventually both nurses did come back to the check-in station, and we got taken care of right away. By this time, Hamilton wasn't really exhibiting the scary symptoms he'd had at home, so the nurse said, "OK, tell me again what's wrong with him." Once we saw the doctor, he asked the same question since Hamilton was acting like his normal, happy self. I made Hamilton lie flat on his back for about 20 seconds, and the labored breathing and coughing came quickly then. The doctor immediately said, "Ah, sounds like croup."

THE SMALL-BUT-BIG MERCIES
For you parents out there who've had children with croup, you understand how scary the symptoms are especially if you don't know what's wrong with your child. I was so thankful that Hamilton only had croup, whose symptoms can easily be alleviated, instead of a shellfish allergy, asthma, or other scary respiratory problem. We were in and out of the ER in about an hour, and since Mom and Dad were here we didn't have to drag Claire out of bed too. The Lord protected Hamilton while he slept last night, since in my parental ignorance I didn't know what I should have been doing to help him.

Hamilton took two good naps today and seemed almost normal for much of the day. We set up a humidifier in his room to moisten the air and help with his breathing, so I'm hoping he'll have some peaceful sleep tonight--so Mama can too!