Oh What A Night!

Wow, what a night. We had a great day, but I noticed while we were out at lunch that Chloe was starting to sound a little congested and rattly like she had mucus in the back of her throat. She seemed to gag on it slightly occasionally, but no big deal. When I tried to feed her dinner a few hours later she was very irritable and gagged every time I tried to feed her or give her a drink. I finally gave up and took her out of her seat. That's when the REAL gagging and retching and DRAMA began. This was the longest she's ever had an episode like this (or repeated episodes). She vomited mucus at one point, cried A LOT, had some stridor and had to work hard to breath because she was crying so much, gagged and retched a lot, and was just all around not doing great. I was having my sister get us directions to a) the nearest hospital and b) the best children's hospital. Unfortunately they are not one in the same. At home we are 10 minutes away, here we are more like 40. We took her in a steamed up bathroom, tried venting her stomach of air and finally decided to call the pediatrician back home to see what we should do. That's when she fell asleep. So we waited. . . and she slept. . . and we waited. . . She did wake up eventually with some "I'm okay" smiles before falling off back to sleep. Mommy, although feeling like she's been slapped in the face after becoming quite comfortable wtih Chloe's strong health status, is finally recovering and feeling as though the likelihood of a hospital visit has passed. Daddy, fortunately, had this one right. He didn't think we'd end up going, but I wasn't feeling so confident. The amount of mucus coming from her mouth and the difficutly it was causing convinced me she was going need to be suctioned (of course because we didn't bring the suction machine because it's getting returned!!!) But we all got through it and hopefully she will wake up feeling MUCH better. Our only guess is that she got dehydrated and now that she's on her feed will bounce back. Let's hope!!!!!!!!!!!!!!