Cool Air and Steam

Aaron has struggled for the last couple of nights with the croup. The night before last was the worst. The second night always is. He's not out of the woods yet, but signs are pointing to some improvement. He had less fever last night and slept a little longer, but when he woke up he was pulling hard for air. Croup is caused by a viral infection of the upper airway that causes a fever and swelling of that airway. Young children are susceptible to it because their airways are so small. I know how to care for children with this illness, but when it's your kid, it's still scary. I know that if we keep him calm, have him breathe cool air and steam, that he's going to be OK. Yet, hearing each stridorous breath and each barky cough makes you wonder if that airway is just going to close while you are holding him, or worse yet, in his sleep. Needless to say, we had the baby monitor cranked and it was hard for us to try to sleep without listening to every breath, especially for Becky (she looked so tired when I came home this evening). When he started barking at 5 AM (the night before it was 3AM and 6AM), Becky got up and was in there after just the second cough to start singing to him and hugging him to keep him from getting too worked up - he barely had enough room in his trachea to breathe calmly but not enough to cry. I got up and started the hot shower, then opened up the second floor door to the airing deck so we could walk him in between the cool air and steam. This is by far and away been the most useful application for our airing deck. By 5:30 AM he had calmed down enough for us to sit him in front of the Disney Channel on our bed. We're going to bed early again tonight to get whatever sleep we can. It should be better soon.