Rough night

I’m so hoping that last night was just a fluke and not an indication of things to come.

Hannah has been just a bit congested since yesterday morning.  Nothing dramatic, just a slightly runny nose here and there.

During her morning nap yesterday, she would only sleep about 20 minutes in her PackNPlay before waking up.  I’d pick her up, and she’d fall back asleep on me immediately.  I’d let her sleep on me for about 10 minutes, and then I would put her back in her PackNPlay.  Again, 10 to 15 minutes later, she would wake right up.  So I picked her up and let her sleep on me again.  On me, she slept another 90 minutes long.

Then during her afternoon nap, she was pretty uncomfortable as she was trying to sleep.  As I was letting her fall asleep on me, I could hear the congestion in her chest somewhat.  It wasn’t like a normal congestion, but it sounded up a bit higher than what I have heard in the past with me and the other kids.  Twice, she woke up really startled, panicking, and acting as if she couldn’t breathe for just a second and then she would start swallowing really loudly.  This lasted for about 30 seconds each within a 90-minute period when she slept on me (while Ethan and Abigail were watching TV).

Last night, she didn’t fall asleep until almost 11 pm (usually, she falls asleep around 9:30 pm).  She seemed really uncomfortable, and she had another slightly runny nose, which was clear.  My husband fell asleep, so I let Hannah just sleep next to me while I was working on my laptop in bed.  Around 11:30 pm, she started with those panicking, startled, swallowing spells.  She would be completely asleep, wake up and sit straight up, and then when it would pass about a minute or so later, she would fall right back asleep. 

About midnight, I put her into her crib.

They started happening every 10 to 15 minutes for a while, and I was really starting to get nervous.  I couldn’t figure out what was going on.  She was breathing fine during them, as I could feel her breathing when I had my hand on her chest (plus she just got the “all clear” from the pulmonologist just two days earlier), but she acted like she couldn’t breathe.  Then I was thinking it must be related to her laryngomalacia and her cold perhaps?  You know how you swallow when you have mucus in your throat to get it down?  Maybe that combined with her reflex made it really sting or cause pain?  The humidifier in her room wasn’t working for some reason. I had no clue.  I kept thinking during the middle of it, “is this the beginning of the end?” and freaking myself out.  Do I need to take her to the ER?  Would they have any clue what to do or would they just go for the obvious on a child where the obvious is wrong?

Finally, around 1:30 am, I brought Hannah back in my room, and I sat there with her in bed.  She slept against me in a sitting position, and sure enough, she didn’t have any more of these episodes.  My husband woke up, which I was glad, because I wasn’t sure what to do.   Obviously, sleeping upright made her more comfortable.

When we tried lying her down again, she had one more episode.  So we got out the carafate (reflux med) and gave her some just in case it was reflux related.  We also found this plug-in vapor treatment in the kid’s bathroom and plugged it in her room.  We tried a couple of pillows in her crib, but ended up just using a couple of blankets wrapped together because that height was perfect. 

About 2:30 am, she had finally been asleep for more than 15 minutes in her crib.  My husband went back to sleep, but I had to stay up and make sure she was okay.  I finally drifted off around 3:00 am.  She had a couple of more episodes during the night that I woke up hearing on the monitor (and going into her room), not anywhere as intense as they had been earlier, before my husband woke up with her at 7:00 am.

She has been a bit more exhausted than normal today, for good reason.  She is on her second nap right now.  She hasn’t had anymore episodes at all today and has been acting like her old happy self.   I’m anxiously nervous about tonight.  We’ll see what happens.