Steam or cold? Let's do both.

Millie celebrated her first day being 7 months old by going to the pediatrician.  Then, she thought it would be fun to get a diagnosis of Croup today, too. 

I highly doubt she is having a blast. 

I crawled into bed last night/this morning around 1:30am.  I don't usually stay up that late but I had things to do on the computer.  Important things like write a blog.

At 1:38, I kid you not, Amelia woke up.  At first I didn't know what I was hearing.  It sounded like someone had parked Sea World in the middle of my living room.  My daughter was barking every time she sucked in to take another breath, and it sounded painful.  I rushed in there to nurse her and unfortunately had to change her diaper, too.  I really am not a fan of middle-of-the-night diaper changes.  One of two things happen:  Either I change her diaper prior to feeding her or I wait until after she's been fed to change her. With the former option, she cries because she's hungry and her screams wake up David, and with the latter option she manages to wake up completely and is sometimes harder to get back to sleep.  Last night she started crying while I was changing her after she had been fed, and since she was barking so badly it woke up David.  He really was worried and asked me to call the pediatrician in the morning.

So, I did and they said they'd like to see her. 

It was pouring outside and my gas tank was inching closer and closer to "E".  I don't like to get that close to empty, but I don't drive my car all that often so I frequently forget where my gas gauge lies. 

I decided to take the freeway, figuring it would take less time even though the backroads are more direct.  I was already running late.  Right outside my neighborhood the "low fuel" light came on.  I get good gas mileage so I wasn't too concerned.  I made it to the pediatrician's office only 5 minutes late, but wasn't called back until after 10 minutes of waiting.

Her oxygen levels were good.  Whew.
She was diagnosed with croup and offered a steroid shot to open her passageways.  Steroid shot?  My baby?  No, thanks.  We were told she is contagious and would take 7-10 days to fully recover.  I need to watch her to make sure she doesn't run a fever or start to have trouble breathing.  Having a sick baby is absolutely no fun...it's so hard to have her feeling crummy and not be able to tell me what's wrong.  Even if she could, I can't fix it.

She fell asleep on the way home and I decide to take the back roads.  It's like I was being punished - I hit every. single. red. light.  I'm not kidding. Every one.  The needle on my gas gauge inched closer and closer to the dreaded "E" and I tried to coast down hills when I could.  The back roads only have one gas station and it's Arco...I mentally block it out. 

I made it home.

David got home tonight and he sounds awful.  He's getting sick, too.  I guess it was inevitable. 

Right before her bedtime, we ran a hot bath and sat in the bathroom with Amelia for several minutes, hoping the steam would help her breathe.  She would NOT sleep tonight.  I couldn't nurse her, rock her, sing to her, sway with her...nothing worked.  Several minutes into my efforts, we decided to take her outside and hopefully let the frigid air do its work on her croup.  She stopped crying as the scenery changed and really any time David held her.  He wasn't the evil person trying to get her to sleep.  We brought her inside and I kept trying.  She cried really hard and the barking started again so finally after an hour and a half of fighting her, I gave up.  She played happily on the floor in the living room until she pooped.  After that, I successfully nursed her and rocked her to sleep at 10pm.   

I think this is my most boring post yet. 

Here's something unboring (at least to me):