What an exhausting and busy day we had yesterday!
For about a week and a half, Kate has had a runny nose. I've heard from several people that is common during teething, so I pretty much brushed it off. Then on Thursday night, Kate coughed a few times, and it had that seal's bark sound to it. Once again I didn't think TOO much of it, because she'd had that before, and I took her to the Pediatrician, and it turned out to be nothing. Friday morning we woke up, and I took her over to daycare right away because I had an interview that morning. I could tell she wasn't 100%, but other than that I didn't notice anything too bad.
Well, a few minutes after I got home from the interview, they called and told me they were concerned about Kate. They could tell she wasn't feeling well, she didn't feel like eating her oatmeal and applesauce (which, if you know Kate, you know that is VERY out of the ordinary!) and that she just sounded awful, and her cough was getting worse. They recommended I take her to the doctor. So I did. Before we left I took her temperature, and it was up to 101.9. That's the highest it has been so far. She didn't have much fun at the Pediatrician's. She just wasn't feeling well, so when all of the poking and prodding wouldn't have been that big of a deal, it was all very traumatic for her. Then, worst of all, they suctioned as much of the mucous out of her respiratory system, she was SCREAMING during that, poor little thing. Anyway, she has Croup. They prescribed some steroids to give her to help ease the swelling in her throat, and told me that if she has any stridor (wheezy breathing) during rest or sleep, she needed to go to the Emergency Room.
So we went home, and Kate went down for a nap right away. I went in to check on her 30 minutes later, and her breathing sounded wheezy. I called my friend Kerry who is a Pediatric nurse, to hold her up to the phone and see what she thought. Kerry agreed it sound stridorous, and she recommended we get Kate to the ER. Jeff had come home sick from work, so we packed up and went.
The ER was pretty busy, we had to wait a while. They got us in and monitored her for a while. She didn't have any more stridor while they were monitoring her, and her oxygen levels were normal, so they decided the best thing was a good dose of steroids and send us on our way. So, we did. Kate fell asleep in her carseat while we were waiting to be discharged, when the stridor came back. I was glad the nurse was able to hear what I heard, and agree that it's stridor. So, she called in respiratory and we gave her a breathing treatment for an hour, then sent us on our way.
Kate had hardly gotten a nap all day, and was up about 4 hours past her bedtime! She was a total wreck towards the end of the day at the ER. She was just soooo tired, wanting her bed, wanting to be left alone, etc. I felt so bad for her, but overall she took it like a trooper.
She slept very soundly overnight, didn't cough once, and woke up a much happier baby. She took a 3 hour power nap this morning as well. It's nice to see her returning to my normal, happy Katers.
And in other news, her second tooth popped through yesterday! My big girl. Tomorrow is baby dedication at church. The Blairs are in town for it, and my parents will be coming over as well. Kate can't go in the nursery after the dedication is over, though, because of her Croup, so we're trying to decide whether to sit in back and hope she stays quiet, or just go home afterwards. Either way we are pretty excited!
a prayer for back to school
3 years ago
