Recently I got the dreaded call that Bub needed to go to emergency. This was the first time it happened and I wanted to share my experience for any other first-timers to be.

Bub had caught some virus and had the usual fevers and feeling unwell. We’d been treating with good ol Panadol and Nurofen. However on the day of the incident, my mother in law was watching him and noticed that after a nap, Bub was shivering and had blue lips. She immediately called my husband (who was home) to take Bub to hospital. When my husband called me, I was just finishing up my lunch break at work. When I heard ‘blue lips’ and ‘emergency’, shock hit. I organised to go straight home (grateful to work in an understanding team). On the way to the hospital, I had mixed feelings: shock mixed with nerves and some anxiety, impatience to get there and see the situation for myself and hold my baby. Overall I felt in my heart Bub should be ok as it was likely to do with the virus and he was going to get help. So I wasn’t in massive breakdown mode, but perhaps it was also some disbelief that this was happening.

Upon arrival to hospital, we were seen very quickly and an initial assessment done. Bub didn’t have blue lips and had a fever instead when I got there, which gave me some comfort that it was a virus and nothing more sinister. After administering Panadol and Nurofen, the hospital staff noted that although his fever had gone down and behaviour more normal, his breathing rate was still quite quick. So just to be sure, he had a chest X-ray and blood test taken.

For the X-ray, I went into the room with him and he sat down against this block whilst I held his shoulders back. As he was grumpy, he kept crying and protesting so it was a bit of a struggle to get the X-ray done. But we got there in the end. For the blood test, he had numbing cream put on so he wouldn’t feel the needle as much. When taking blood, we distracted him with Youtube and one of the nurses also blew bubbles – it was like a party in the room with the singing and bubbles ha!

After an hour, we got the all clear and they did a nose swab just in case Bub doesn’t get better by next week (results would be made available to the GP).

This all took place over approx 8 hours in hospital (we went public). We were all knackered by the time we got to go home.

So my top lessons learned from the experience are:

1. If you’re by yourself with Bub then tend to them. But if someone is there with you or there is opportunity to, take a video of the symptoms. That way, if they stop by the time you get to hospital, you’ll have a record to show staff there and improve the diagnosis

2. Get ambulance cover for Bub-although we didn’t have to use it, I was glad I had this in place (good safety blanket which would really come in use when needed)

3. Bring a charger – if we didn’t have youtube, our already cranky Bub wouldn’t have lasted those 8 hours.

4. Focus on the next step: it’s easy to think the worst on the way to the hospital. You’re gona be worried/freaked out/scared, but try to focus on the next step eg getting to the bus/train/car, driving to the hospital, getting into the lifts etc

5. Going to hospital plus the overall wait involved (for test results, check ins etc) can be draining and it’s easy to develop a negative mindset. I felt overall the experience was quite positive because we enjoyed the moment for what it had to offer – we were able to all be together in a safe place, Bub was showing off his baby shark and monkey on the bed dance moves, we got to learn about the different ways modern medicine has developed to make it easier to treat children and feeling grateful for the right people and things in place to allow us to get help for Bub. So would recommend trying to keep a more positive mindset and find enjoyment in the present moment.

Hope this doesn’t happen to your Bub, but if it does, I hope the above tips come in handy 🙂