Friday, September 12, 2014

This Chair

James had croup this week, and what started as a cold and yucky cough, quickly turned into a midnight trip to the emergency room. James woke up in the middle of the night gasping for air and struggling to breathe. We have had some pretty scary moments as he has dealt with asthma, but not many others have truly compared to this. We quickly raced to give him a breathing treatment but it seemed to only make things worse as he couldn't even breathe in the steam or albuterol the device was producing. For the first time ever I almost called 911 but we opted to throw James in the car (pull  Haylie out of her bed) and race to the emergency room ourselves. After James and Micah stood in the garage for a short time while I grabbed Haylie and everyone's blankets / sweaters, etc. James started getting a little better. We arrived at the emergency room and he was breathing relatively normal but they still gave him a dose of Steroids to endure he didn't have any further problems. 


When we arrived home, we put our tired boy to bed on the chair in our room so we could monitor him and ensure he was breathing the rest of the night. As he lay there I watched him breathe in and out and I was so grateful he was ok. Strangely enough, I couldn't help but think about the chair he was sleeping in and how thankful I was for that chair holding my baby.  Our big green chair was one we bought when we moved into our first home at the beginning of our marriage about 13 years ago. I remember we bought it at Naturewood and they were having a special where we could choose any custom fabric for the chair. We chose a soft, green velvet mostly because the color matched our new bedding and room decor. At the time, little did we know what a big role that chair would play in our everyday lives. Just a few years after purchasing our green chair, we had our first baby and miss Haylie and I spent nearly all of her first three months of life, morning and middle of the night in that chair, nursing, sleeping and playing. I took her newborn announcement photos on that chair and I took James' on the ottoman. When James came along, we too spent hours on that chair nursing and resting. Much of the early bonding with my two little babies took place in that chair. Both of our kids have slept in that chair throughout their lives whether it was together on sleepover nights with us or separate, after nightmares, feeling sick or a particularly rough night. I have done countless morning devotions in that chair and our kids love to sit there and read or rest while I'm getting ready in the mornings. I am thankful for the comfort and safety that chair provides and I'm thankful to continue to watch my babies grow and breathe before my eyes. We have redecorated our room a couple times since getting that chair and I'm sure we will redecorate a few more times but so far any new decor has centered around matching that chair and I can't see getting rid of it anytime soon.