Are there seals in my bedroom?

We've been visiting my husband's sister in Chicago this week. It's been a great time for the boys to spend time with their older cousin. The night before we left, Ben started waking up in the night screaming. He continued to get worse...and worse, until the night before last, he was gasping for air all night long. I finally put him in bed with me because his breathing was so shallow and erratic, I was worried that he wasn't getting any air.

The next morning, as he sat barking like a California sea lion, I realized we had ourselves a full-blown case of CROUP!! Alex had croup when he was a baby, but I don't remember it being quite so severe or scary. Ben's sickness symptoms tend to be amplified much more than Alex's. Even as a baby, Alex would have a cold with some whining and a side of groans. Ben gets a cold with lots of screaming and thrasing and death-rattle breaths. Just the difference in the way their little bodies respond to illness.

So, needless to say, we spent most of one day at the Immediate Care clinic at the hospital. His croup wasn't bad enough to warrant emergency intervention, but when you're on the road, you can never just walk into a doctor's office. Little Ben sat on my lap and wheezed his way through most of the visit. One steroid shot in his leg, and two more sleepless nights filled with barks and coughs, and he seems to be on the mend.

Although, after all those nights of Croup germs being coughed into my face, I think I've gotten the adult version. I no longer have a voice to calm my sicko kids! Should be a fun plane ride home!