Traditions?

A couple of weeks before Christmas Justin asked me if I wanted an orange in my sock. See, this was the tradition when I was a girl and for the last 3 years I have insisted on it. But this year, with Kyler, I felt I could let go of my traditions from my childhood and we could start some new traditions as a family. Little did I know what that meant. I truly hope that this year's Christmas tradition DOES NOT repeat next year.

We were spending Christmas in Idaho Falls at my sister-in-law's house. The whole Nielsen clan was together for the last Christmas (possibly) that Justin and I would be in Idaho for a long time. We had a wonderful Christmas Eve and all settled in for a long winter's nap. Then at 1:00am Christmas morning, in Kyler's crib there arose such a clatter. I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter. I drew back my covers, and pulled back his blankie, and to my distress, Kyler was struggling to breathe. I picked him up, and he calmed down so I laid him down again. A few minutes later, he was struggling again. This time Justin was awake. Kyler struggled and struggled. After an hour passed I drug a chair into the bathroom and we started trying a steam bath. We opened his jammies, and saw that he was sucking in so hard, you could see the outlines of his ribs and clavicle in every breath. So, we decided that it was time to go to the ER. By now it was 2:30 am and Kyler needed a blessing before we left. We ended up waking up every adult in the house before we'd found the oil and calmed him down enough to give him the blessing. Randy spoke (Justin couldn't, he was too choked up). I don't really remember anything that was said, I just know that by the end, I was sobbing, Justin was crying and I just wanted to get Kyler to the doctor. The good news was he seemed to start doing a little better as soon as we closed the blessing.

We sped to the hospital (stopped at a red light to check that the roads were safe, then ran it) and checked Kyler in. He was the only person there and the nurses took such good care of him. His initial O2 stats at check in was 86% O2 saturation (WAY too low). But then they took it a few minutes later because he didn't look as bad as 86% would suggest. It was 92%. Still low, but better. Later, Justin and I talked about how we were pretty sure that the reason his O2 stats were in the 90's was because of the blessing. There was no way, with the way he'd been struggling for the last two hours, that his stats should be that high. So, they got him on oxygen and then gave him a breathing treatment and a dose of Prednizone, then took a chest X-ray. By 5:00 am the doc came back and said his X-ray looked clear, it wasn't pneumonia. He thought it may have been an allergic reaction to his teething. (Doesn't that sound fun?!) We did one more breathing treatment and filled out paperwork to get him a nebulizer that day (which was delivered to the house) and we were released with a prescription for Albuterol and a three day supply of Prednizone. We got home by 6:40 am. Our nephews had just woken up to see what Santa brought them as we walked in the door. They couldn't figure out why we were dressed in coats and Kyler was in his car seat. They were super cute when they found out that Kyler had to go to the hospital. They were so worried about him.

Kyler slept a little after getting home, and Justin and I did not.
We opened Christmas and had a wonderful time. When Kyler woke up, we opened his presents and started the day. Forgive his non-smiliness! He had only had about 5 ours sleep that night. We ended up doing 5 breathing treatments that day. But now he is doing SO much better!


So the tradition we DO NOT want to continue is getting up at 1:00 am Christmas morning, getting ot the ER by 3:00, getting home by 7:00 and getting a total of an hour and a half of sleep.

But the good news in all of this was that Kyler cut his first tooth on Christmas Day and now it's peeking out to say hello! Another one is not too far behind it. His breathing is doing better and better and we are so happy to see it! Hopefully this was just a random horrible event that will never repeat itself.