Foiled

Mother's day started off on a rather frightening note with Joshka waking up in the middle of the night really struggling for breath. He had a nasty cough and was completely chesty and wheezy. It was totally scary. Ben was working the nightshift, so I phoned the ambulance station immediately, but he was already on a job. So it was left to me to deal with it. I thought so much of my mother dealing with my asthma attacks when I was a child, and was grateful for the fact that I had someone to help (really nifty being married to a paramedic) and that I had modern medicine at my disposal.
I didn't care that Joshka was now wide awake - my mind was just working over all the options as fast as it could. I located the asthma pump he'd been prescribed about a year ago when he had bronchitus and found the spacer to go with it. We went through to my bedroom where I could sit on the end of the bed and try and put the mask of the spacer over his mouth and nose. Obviously my poor little boy found this weird and stressful and fought and cried and struggled to get away from it. I felt cruel to be 'smothering' him with such force, watching while he cried, for him to take an all important breath. I was prepared to be the monster if only for that little breath, or two, or three. Finally I put it down and held him close and tried to calm him down so he could breathe easier. I carried him through to the lounge, dimmed the lights and sat on the couch with my cell phone, patting his back and listening to his breathing improve. I texted Ben, using the all important phrase "difficulty breathing" and outlined what I'd done and could he come as soon as he could.
Well, he did come, and listened to Joshka's chest. Joshka obligingly coughed and Ben said, "Right, we're going to the hospital. Get something warm for him, and the nappy bag..." I was told to go to bed and get some sleep since it could be a long night.
Joshka was treated for croup and was back in an hour, calm and sleepy - untraumatised. Ben offered to take the rest of the night off and stay home, but I didn't think that was neccesary, so he left again and Joshka slept well till the morning.

We were intending to drive up to Auckland for the next 3 days, but decided against going, opting instead to remain at home where it would no doubt be easier to deal with sick, snotty children, should anything else develop. It was a shame because we were really looking forward to it, but, in the end, we spent a lovely day together at the lakefront. We'll get up to Auckland another time.