Bennett's first trip to the ER!

All's well. Bennett had been coughing Friday and Saturday nights, and I thought perhaps he had allergies. As the day went on Sunday, though, he got more and more clingy and sensitive, and was coughing more and more. He crashed for a nap at 6PM, shortly after we'd called the pediatrician to report that he had a productive cough and a fever of 100.0. At 7:30 he woke up with a barking cough, crackly breathing, and was sort of gasping for air after coughing and crying fits. He had a fever of 101.6, so we called the pediatrician's office again and were told they were done seeing patients for the day, so it was off to the ER.

They were really quick getting us triaged, and heard a slight bit of wheezing in Bennett's lungs. A respiratory therapist was in our room very shortly to give him a breathing treatment, croup was diagnosed and a chest x-ray was ordered. I was handed two syringes - one of Motrin and one of Tylenol - to give him by mouth. I don't think he got any of either - he spit most of it out amidst much screaming and gagging, and then vomited the rest on me. Good times!

So, since the oral medicines were such a fantastic failure, the doctor ordered the oral steroid be given as a shot. More screaming, but at least we know he actually got those meds.

The chest x-ray was "questionable" as to whether Bennett had pneumonia or not, so we were sent home with a prescription for antibiotics. Oral, liquid antibiotics, to be squirted in his mouth. Right.

The doctor told us to pick up fever-reducing suppositories, but there were no suppositories for the antibiotics! She also said that he'd be find no matter what, just try to get the antibiotics in him.

So I've spent the day trying every suggestion from pretending to take them myself, to blowing in his face, to putting a teensy bit in yogurt, to putting the stuff on my nipples.

I've succeeded in dicouraging him from drinking from his sippy by putting the meds in there, discouraging him from nursing by putting the meds on my nipple, and making a lot of sticky messes. He has been refusing solids for a few days, so the yogurt was a bust entirely.

He's definitely feeling better, though. He's coughing up lots of mucous and spitting it out wherever he happens to be standing, and he's not quite as clingy. He's back to his normal, refusing-to-nap self!

He's got it all figured out...

Bennett has entirely figured out the bath time routine.

I should start by explaining the first bit. We've been putting Bennett on a potty at almost every diaper change since he was about 8 months old. We don't consider it potty training, per se, but more like getting him used to the potty and also giving him some time to air out. He sits on his potty and we read books with him. For awhile, it was the ONLY place he'd sit still and read. I got the idea from a book called Diaper Free Before 3, which I highly recommend. In any case, the first day we tried it, I had said to Matt, "there's no way he'll sit still. I expect to put him on it and for him to immediately get up and crawl away, which is fine. Whatever." Well, we've gone through STACKS of books with him sitting there. And he actually pees with some consistency - especially right after naps. And when we got to the "grunting" stage of poops, we started whisking him away to the potty and getting his diaper off quickly so he can poop there (which, by the way, is MUCH easier to clean up than a poopy diaper!).

So, anyway. Bath night. Daddy gets his pants and diaper off and puts him on the potty. He pees within SECONDS and then pops up and walks right over to the bath tub. Daddy turns the water on and Bennett looks at him and raises his arms. No. Not to be picked up. To have his shirt taken off! He then "helps" Daddy take his shirt off before banging on the side of the tub as if to say "LET ME IN!!!"

He's done this a couple times now. Hilarious!