Practice We Hope We Never Need

It sure is nice to have such good friends.

After hearing about Soren's most recent croup experience, my friend Courtney sent us her daughter's old asthma mask. Soren's ER trip had been made all the worse because he'd been so scared of the mask for the breating treatment. Courtney suggested that we practice with Lorelei's mask just in case we ever needed another breathing treatment.



Great idea.

Of course we hoped we'd never need to use that practice.

Well, this week we were put to the test. Friday night Soren woke up barking, gasping and scared. Yuck. I jumped into our normal routine and bundled him up to go outside. We've done this every single time he's had croup and it has never ever kept us out of the ER. Normally we sit outside and see just how bad he is and then head right off the the ER.

This time though, he wasn't quite as bad. He was still panicked, but not quite as desperate for air. So I just talked him through the panic. Peter came out with supplies - blankets, chair, hats, medicine, slippers. And I just kept talking. I hate these moments watching your kid afraid of not breathing. But we talked about the sounds of the night, the stars...

But you know what? He improved. The night air was enough to settle him down until the medicine kicked in.

While we were sitting there all bundled up together in one big blanket we were looking up at the sky. And across the horizon blasts a shooting star! Soren has been talking about shooting stars forever and I wasn't sure if he saw it.

Me: Soren, did you see that?
Soren: Was that a shooting star?
Me: Yes!
Soren: I saw a shooting star! Can I make a wish?
Me: Yes, you can.
Soren: What should I wish for?
Me: You can wish for whatever you want, maybe you want to wish that you could breath better right now.

Soren paused for a minute, closed his eyes, bowed his head and whispered:

"I wish for a chinese dragon."

That was my first clue that we weren't heading to the ER that night.