Friends over and a visit to the hospital!

We had quite a scare on Tuesday night and our first experience with Croup. Jude started coughing early on in the evening, but we thought nothing of it because Niamh and I have been coughing. But it carried on getting worse until Michael decided to go upstairs and give Jude some cough mixture. It was then that he called me upstairs and when I got up I could clearly see that Jude was hardly breathing but was really struggling to get air in and he had a barking cough. We brought him downstairs and as he calmed down he managed to get a bit more air in and his breathing went from gasping for air to wheezing. I phoned the NHS helpline and as soon as they heard Jude's cough and found out that his stomach was going in and out they said we should get him to the hospital immediately and have mobile phones ready to phone 999 in case he stopped breathing. Providentially we had friends staying over, so Mike and I were able to take Jude to the hospital together. When the A&E heard his cough they took him in straightaway and gave him some adrenalin meds which immediately controls the inflammation in the tubes. We then waited to see a paed who checked that his temp, heart rate, oxygen levels were all normal, and then sent us home with the same medication to give to him in case it happens again. The following night he started with exactly the same cough and symptoms and cough so we had to give him the medicine which sorted it out within a few minutes. We are hoping it doesn't happen again tonight, but at least we will know exactly what croup sounds like in case it happens again to Jude or one of the others.

Not feeling great, but he still managed to be cheerful. (I would not normally take a camera along especially in such an emergency, but discovered that Niamh had put her new camera in my bag, so I decided to snap some shots so the girls could see what happened while they were sleeping).
We were all excited to hear that the Biebuycks were coming to stay over on Tuesday night. The children love spending time with each other and get on so well. This is Katie B, Niamh really loves her.
This is Emily and Ciara loves following her around, and Emily loves babying Ciara. I had to laugh when I heard Ciara talk about Ely-im, it took me a moment to figure out she was talking about Emily.
We went into Kingston the next day, and had a coffee together, and then it was a tearful farewell for the girls. I am sure it won't be too long before we see them again.
The whole crew minus Ciara.



Enjoying a noisy dinner together.
In Kingston, Jude desperately asked us to get him a new Hama bead set.
Quite a bit more complicated than what he is used to, but he did get some help from Dad.
And a fire engine, the nice thing about these ones is that we will put them up on the wall in Jude's room - so a nice decoration which he can be proud that he did.

We had a nice treat of doughnuts today, it is so easy to make them in the bread machine and Eden is convinced I am the best cook in the world, hmmmm I know that opinion won't last forever.
Ciara really took her time and enjoyed hers.

Chocolate faces!!!