No George Clooney in This ER!

No dancing around this post! Bad news first....Spencer had his first trip to the ER last night! Poor Baby :-(

Good news, Mommy and Daddy survived and our little Spencer is doing great today!

So it goes like this......

Spencer has been taken liquid Zantac for weeks now to control his reflux issues. It's never fun giving a baby any medicine but when it's in liquid form it really sucks! Sometimes it goes down with no issues, sometimes it gets spit back at you, sometimes you loose a little out the side of the mouth and then, there are the times like last night that bought us a trip to the ER! Sometimes, it goes down the "wrong pipe" and gets into our wind pipe making it hard to breathe!

Yes, like any other night, it was time for our evening medicine, bath time and bottle routine but it all came to a halt when I gave Spencer his medicine and it went down the wrong. I know, Mother of the Year move! I of course did not intend for this to happen and Spencer tends to do this a lot when he takes his bottle but never to this extreme and he always seems to clear it out very quickly. This time was different. He was screaming so loud and his cry was very raspy and no matter how hard we tried to calm him down, he would not settle. I knew his airway was open because he was crying and he was not blue but his breathing did seem labored and he just sounded like he had aspirated the medicine into his lungs.

Bill panicked more then I did and called the pediatrician right away (admittedly, i was annoyed because I thought he would be okay in a few minutes but now very thankful that he did take the initiative to call ). It was 15 minutes before we heard back from the on call service and they instructed us to go to the nearest ER right away to make sure his O2 levels were okay and that he did not aspirate the medicine into his lungs. We got Spencer in his PJ's fast and ran out the door and headed up 2 exits to Northside Forsyth. I think that car ride was the longest ride of my life. In my heart, I knew he was fine but I could not imagine if he was not. The only thing that kept me calm was that Spencer was no longer crying and the car ride helped calm him. It actually calmed him so much, I think he was able to clear a lot of the liquid out but we still heard that raspy breathing so we decided to see continue to the ER. When we arrived, we were triaged right away and back to see a doctor within minutes.

The doctor felt comfortable with his vitals and O2 levels but suggested a chest xray to view his lungs and a breathing treatment to help open his airways. Fun stuff with a 8 WEEK OLD!!!!!

It broke my heart to have to see Spencer in the hospital but Bill and I knew he was going to be just fine once we were there and now, we could breathe easier too. Spencer was a great patient and barely cried once we were there (go figure!). He was a hit with all the nurses and one by one they all came to visit with Spencer.

So, 3 hours later, a chest xray and an albuterol/saline breathing treatment we were released and took our little man home. I debated sleeping in his room last night but figured I needed sleep too after the stressful night. I did however wake up almost every hour to check on him even though I knew he was fine. He slept right through the night as he normally would and woke up a healthy and happy baby this morning! Thank Goodness.

Like I said above, I was not inclined to call the doctor at all but I am so thankful that Bill did. I think I was in denial that anything could happen to Spencer. I could not imagine if the situation was worse last night and I am thankful that my little baby is doing great!

Today we spoiled our little guy to pieces. We started the day with cuddle time with Mommy and Daddy and a trip to Babies R Us for some new toys and summer gear :=) We also got a baby medicine dispenser (NOT a stupid syringe like we were told to use) that looks like a bottle so we could better give Spencer his medicine. However, I am hoping that next week for our 2 month check up we can switch to the dissolvable tablet and been done with liquid all together!

Spencer all cuddled up after his breathing treatment. He was such a trooper!