Sleep, breathing and other essentials

Colin is still sick (or is sick again, I’m no longer sure at this point which it is), and Sunday night took a nasty turn. He was working so hard to breathe, and was crying all night long (16 hours, to be exact). Poor little puppy would only sleep if I was holding him in the rocking chair, and if I had to shift, he would wake up and cry. I seriously debated about taking him to the ER a couple of times, but then he would fall asleep and I didn’t want to wake him.

So, of course, when Monday morning arrives and the doctor’s office opens, he bounced back like there was nothing wrong. (The nap with daddy for an hour may have helped too.) We watched him very closely all day yesterday, and he stayed much better, so we didn’t go in to the doctor. 

Last night was soooo much better. I did have to give him a breathing treatment at 10:30, but before and after that, he was sleeping like the proverbial baby (not like a real baby) with gentle breathing. It was music to my ears (I seriously sat in the bed and just listened to him breathe for half an hour I was so happy.) He’s still pretty congested (as am I), but otherwise seems to be doing well.

Which leads me to a theory on why he suddenly had such a rough night: On Sunday, for whatever reason, Colin choked on pretty much everything he ate — even things he normally can handle well. So now I’m wondering whether he actually aspirated some food, which was causing all the discomfort and breathing problems. Yesterday, we served him pretty much just purees and things that dissolve in his mouth (or teeny tiny bites of other food), and he only choked once. Last night he slept well. (See how I arrived at my theory?)

So I’m doubly glad that we have a speech therapy assessment coming up for him. I talked to the therapist who will be coming out yesterday and ran through some of his issues. I also mentioned that we were going to see a nutritionist as well about his lack of weight gain. Much to my happy surprise, she told me that we also qualify to see a nutritionist through Early Intervention, and she would try to schedule the nutritionist she works with to come along to Colin’s eval. That’s a nice bonus, because the more people we can have come to us (rather than having to go to them), the easier my life is. 

So we’ll continue to watch Colin closely today and see if we think he needs to go in to see the doctor. I’m a little more nervous than normal because we’re supposed to be going on vacation this week and having a sick little boy away from home would not be good. But I have my fingers crossed that he’s on the mend again.