Trust Your Gut
Last week was a big week. To all of you who were waiting on email responses, there's a reason why I went radio silent. This is me with my bubba, Sammy, in the hospital.
Sammy seemed completely fine, but daycare called and said she was making noises when she was breathing...ok, I didn't particularly like that. When I picked her up they said she was happy as anything, just wheezing a bit. I took her home where she ate her dinner just fine, played with her sister, drank lots of water and wet her nappy's as normal. But I wasn't happy. It didn't feel right.
I put Sammy to bed, but I was super uncomfortable. I swear she was getting louder. I firstly called my sister-in-law, who used to be a midwife. We talked it over and my sister-in-law said to 'Trust my Gut', if I think something's wrong, then something's wrong. I didn't want to be a burden, however, and take Sammy to hospital for what could be nothing, so first I called Nurse on Call. Sammy was asleep by then, the nurse couldn't do much, just told me what to look out for. I hung up, intending to spend the night in Sammy's room... then she woke up wailing and wheezing.
Nope. Something was NOT RIGHT. The sound was horrible. I snatched her out of bed and put her in the car. My husband said it was probably nothing, but I was not comfortable and I knew I would be stressing all night. AGAIN, I didn't want to be a burden on the emergency hospital system, so I took her to an Urgent Care facility we have nearby. I raced her there, knowing it was going to close in 30 minutes for the night, and as I did I told myself that maybe I should just go to the hospital instead. No...I could be overreacting.
I never even made it past the receptionist at the Urgent Care facility. They told me to take my baby straight to emergency.
I felt so stupid, on top of the worry. I KNEW something was wrong. Why didn't I just take her there immediately!
Sure enough, Sammy had a nasty case of croup. She needed steroids, but when that didn't work, they gave her adrenaline through a gas mask. I had to hold my baby down as she screamed for 10 minutes with this thing, but finally she breathed easier... of course now she was bright as a button after the adrenaline. She ran around the hospital corridors, where she found a bunch of kids toys and spent 30 minutes sitting on a tiny rocking horse. I mean tiny. See the image below. We both needed sleep, but it took her hours to zonk out... she took the rocking horse back to her bed.
We got released the next morning. I slept in her room the following night, and woke up at 3am to her making the same horrible noises. This time I was going to trust myself. This time I was 100% sure something was wrong. This time I took her straight to the hospital. Another round of drugs and and another night in a hospital bed. I'm now happy to say Sammy is completely well, just leaking snot like a tap.
This is my second child and I'm still learning, but last week's lesson was TRUST YOURSELF. You know your baby better than anyone. If something is wrong, don't worry about being a burden, just go straight to the hospital.
Pippa (Co-Founder, Bubs and Boobs Co)
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