Croup attacks

We are very familiar with croup in this family. I think every single one of the boys has now had croup at least once, from Alex right on down to Nate. Ben used to get it at least two or three times a year, and he had his last bout at age 6, I think. That's considered quite old to have croup.

Nate sounded awful during the day yesterday. His voice was half gone, and when he talked his voice had the sound of a croup bark. So I certainly wasn't surprised when he came into our room last night sometime around 2:30 am crying incoherently and struggling for breath. I immediately went into the bathroom and started running the shower. We sat in the steamy bathroom for a while, and then Charles came in fully dressed, ready to take over for Phase 2.

Charles took him out on the back porch for five minutes. The cold air seemed to help even better than the steam, but it really was too cold to be out there for very long. After that, we put Nate to bed in our room, on the crib mattress that we keep conveniently stored behind the drapes for just this purpose. We pulled out the cool mist humidifier, and before long, Nate was able to go to sleep.

I on the other hand spent the next hour listening to him wheeze and Charles snore.

Nate is still croupy this morning. I had to have Ben take him outside for a few minutes while I wrote the checks for the private lessons. He's now back in my bed, watching Boomerang. I can't even count the number of times I have spent sitting in a steamy bathroom. I clearly remember sitting on the front porch with Ben and later Jon in West Jordan. I remember sitting in the garage with at least one kid, because it was the dead of winter and we couldn't sit outside. Since Nate is now four years old, this may very well be my last time going through the croup routine. I hope so; this is not one of the childhood things I will miss!!