when gasping isn't good...

after a lazy saturday watching the monsoon from the safety of the indoors, sunday was a beautiful day. the weather was perfect and we couldn't have picked a better day for our family photos and mason's six month (oops, so we're a month behind!) photo shoot. outside of the giant fight minor discussion brad and i had over wardrobe choices, we headed out to mercer arboretum to take advantage of the colorful spring blooms. all went swimmingly well. mason smiled and showed off all his tricks for the camera including a few new ones that surprised us (you'll see when we get the photos!)

we finished up at 6 pm and jumped in the car to make it home in time for mason's dinner. mason ate, then played a bit before going to bed. he decided he didn't feel much like sleeping (aka screamed like a madman), so we finally gave in and let him play a little longer. mason konked out around 8:30 and slept soundly until 11:15 pm. that's when we heard him crying over the monitor. brad got up to investigate and soon i hear him yelling "come here NOW!!" over the monitor. i ran into mason's room and brad is holding him while mason is gasping for air. i have never heard a sound more awful than that one. we quickly decided that this was unchartered territory and one left to the professionals. we bolted through the doors of the er at 11:35.

quick shout-out to st. lukes, the most awesome emergency room ever. there was no line and even if there was one, we wouldn't have been in it because they have a 24-hour pediatrician on duty. we love them. after they administered an oral steroid to mason, he was feeling great in 5 minutes time. not coughing. not gasping. just smiling in between yawns as he signaled he was ready to go back to bed. all told, we were in and out of the er in 30 minutes!

he was diagnosed with croup, but i'm still not convinced that's what it was. after all, the doctor told us to expect high fevers, a barking cough, and 5-7 days of misery. mason has not had fever, only "barked" for the 20 minutes before he had the steroid, and other than a runny nose, is pretty much back to normal after one day at home.

i took him in for a follow-up yesterday afternoon. as mason wiggled, giggled, crinkled the paper on the table, rolled over, grabbed my hands and stood up, and otherwise didn't sit still for a single second, the doctor looked at him, then looked at me to say, "well, if he's feeling like this tomorrow, he should be fine to go back to school!"

sunday night's adventure wasn't exactly what we had in mind, but we are thankful to have excellent health care surrounding us to take care of our baby boy. i was too focused on the task at hand to take photos that night, but here's one from yesterday when he wasn't quite back to normal yet (ie going from laughing to crying in two seconds flat)... even when he's grumpy, he's still pretty cute.