Choking

So pretty much the scariest thing ever happened on Wednesday morning. I will go ahead and tell you Henry is fine. He has a cold. That is important to know before I tell you the story, because otherwise it will be terrifying for you all too. Since you know the outcome, I can now fill you in without building unneeded concern for our sweet little guy!

Tuesday night Henry was cranky. Not bad, but not his normal self. He kept spitting up, and it was always this thick sticky spit-up. When I put him in his bassinet that night he was making odd noises almost like he had something in his throat. I thought it was strange, but didn't worry about it much. He got up at four to eat and he was normal, then we got up at seven. This is when things started to go wrong.

I took him into the nursery to get him changed. I laid him on the changing table and he spit up. It was once again that thick sticky spit up, and it was a pretty large amount. It came out both his mouth and nose, so it clearly had some force behind it. Still, my first impression was that it is just spit up and not a big deal. Then he started turning really red. He was making these horrifying gasping noises that were these short sharp breaths. His eyes got huge and started to look glassy. He clearly was having a very hard time breathing.

I ran him into the living room and grabbed he nose sucker while calling for Nick. He could hear the gasps from the bedroom and asked if he was chocking. I couldn't get anything sucked out, so Nick asked if we should go to the hospital while pulling on his pants (clearly he wasn't waiting for my response). I flipped him over to hit it back, and he was so stiff. All the muscles in his body were tight. He just kept getting more and more red and he gasped for air. He was breathing, but just these tiny breaths. Not enough to catch his breath. Not even enough to cry. He looked so scared. It was horrible. HORRIBLE.

We ran to the car and I got in the back. We didn't even put him in his car seat because the idea of laying him down while he was choking was totally out of the question. We live about a mile from the hospital, so Nick drove and I held him begging him to just cry. When we pulled in to the hospital parking lot he finally let out a gasp and then finally (FINALLY) let out a cry. He sorta looked like he was foaming at the mouth because he had this really thick spit that was bubbling out of him. He was still so red and ridged.

We called him doctors office to let them know we were going to the ER and they said they were in the office. It is at the same location so we ran him there instead. We walk in and I am in tears. My mom works at the office, so we are well known and Henry is very loved there. They were all so wonderful. Here I stand with a crying baby and I am crying saying, "He can't breath!" (clearly not true seeing as how he is screaming). The doctor came in and looked at him right away. He listened to his chest and checked in his nose and ears. They told us Henry has his very first cold. A cold. A horrifying and mentally scarring (for me, not him) cold.

This is where I would usually make fun of myself for over reacting, but I can't. This was so terrifying. I know it is a cold, but he was CHOKING. He was red and ridged and his eyes were glassy and....it was just so awful. When we got home he ate, then spit up, then spit up again and it was the HUGE blob of mucus. Not the thick spit up, a super nasty ball of mucus. Like, if this had come out of me it would freak me out, so seeing it come out of my eight pound (hey, he weights eight pounds now!) son was horrifying. It was clearly what had gotten him so choked. It had been what was causing him problems the night before. Once he got it out he looked so tired. Like he had been fighting it forever.

The rest of the day we kept an eye on him and he did better. They had told us to call if he had a fever of over 100.4. Of course, at nine o'clock at night his fever went up to 100.8. We called, expecting to be told to give him Tylenol. Instead they told us we really needed to go to the ER. Yes, the ER. SO...off we went. They were wonderful there. They absolutely loved our little guy (how could they not!) He was wonderful and didn't cry at all when they did the x-ray (yes he had to have and x-ray) and he looked pretty annoyed, but didn't cry when they had to give him a catheter (YES, he had to have a catheter) but he really REALLY hated when they pinned his arm down to give him the IV. That didn't go to well at all. The blood work came back and said he has....A cold. They thought about doing a lumbar puncture, but decided against it. Thank the lord. We finally were discharged at 2am. It was a VERY long day.

You would think his first ER visit would be scary, but really it felt like a technicality. It was a "better safe than sorry" situation. The choking...the choking will haunt me. His little face...he was just so terrified. I am happy to report the entire family is doing much better now. Hopefully I will never have to see him choke again. I don't know if my heart can take it.

Here is the poor baby with his IV ( Yes, I took pictures at the ER...we were there FOREVER! Might as well document it...you know...for the blog)

Here he is calming down with his mama. A mama who looks super sexy what with the no shower and the sweat pants and I am sorta sitting weird....and no, my shirt is not tucked in, it is just pulled up from where I was nursing him to make him feel better from the HORROR of the IV. Thank God for the calming effect of nursing.

And here he is relaxing with his Papa waiting on the results to send us home! Poor poor baby. It was a bad six week birthday