My eyes are broken - when are they going to be fixed?
At 2:18am CST Nora woke up crying and coughing - one of those panicky cries with a croupy cough. Dave, in his zombie state went downstairs to find cough medicine while I (half-asleep) laid with Nora on her bed and tried to calm her down. You know how it goes - the more she cried, the more she coughed. The more she coughed, the more she cried.
She said to me, "My mouth is broken. When will it be fixed?" Cute, huh? Yeah, it would be at 9am or even 7am - not so much at 2:22 am.
I finally came to a semi-conscious state of being and brought her into the bathroom and started the hot water hoping to produce enough steam to open her airway. Here is what I learned:
1. Running hot water through the tub faucet does not produce much steam.
2. Running the shower works better.
3. You need to close the shower doors.
4. When you're learning those kinds of lessons, the hot water runs out pretty quickly - so quickly that we didn't get much steam.
When I figured out that there was no more hot water Nora started crying and said, "It didn't work." Again - cute at 7am. Not so much at 2:45am.
So I got out the vaporizor. Cleaned it out. Set it up in Nora's room and watched her fall back into a (semi) peaceful sleep. I can hear that her airway has opened a bit and she isn't coughing or panicking. Problem solved? Not quite. Problem helped? Yes. Child sleeping? Yes.
Then I went downstairs to read up on croup and its treatments in my What to Expect The Toddler Years book and learned nothing new on how to produce steam. Put the book away, went back upstairs to bed. In bed - 3:08am.
Right now it is 3:44am and what am I doing? Am I sleeping? No. Why? No clue - wait, I do know why... because I got myself moving enough to wake myself up. I woke myself up enough to sufficiently help my ailing child - and also sufficiently enough to get my mind going. And now I can't get back to sleep. Nice.
THIS is why I often pretend to not hear the girls when they cry in the middle of the night and let Dave get up and help them.
8 comments:
Oh...you poor mommy! We have had our share of croup in our house...it is awful...scary for child and mommy. In my experience, steam is over rated. I always had better success by bringing the child outside in the cool night air. I'm not sure if it's the air or the distraction but it has always worked for me. Riding them around in the car with the windows open works too...but I wouldn't suggest it unless it's an emergency. And I'm sorry your up in the middle of the night...I really think it's the curse of the mommy...sooner or later we all get it. Next time kick Dave and roll over if you can! = )
I hate this croup stuff! The last round we had, our pediatrician said to take them outside into somewhat "cold" weather. If you're not having cooler weather, open the freezer door & try that. Cade woke up at 2:00 a.m. last weekend with a croup cough. He's five though, so his went away pretty quickly. I hope she feels better soon!! :(
Poor sweetie. I hope she (and YOU) are doing better this morning. :)
I should have said 'this afternoon'...can you tell I'm sleep-deprived? :P
we could have had a chat! Sam has a cold and we've been having some sleep issues. My eyes felt a little broken today too! :)
praying for restored health soon! (or really good cold medicine! )
Hope you all get a better night's sleep tonight and that Nora is feeling better!
Emma woke up with a fever today, which means I had a 13-mo old attached to me all day. She's sleeping now, but we'll see what the night holds...
Anyone heard of Juice Plus? www.drbierma.com
It has worked for us...with 4 kids and a Dr. husband I have to do all I can to keep the cold and sickness yuk away from us. Let me know what you think.
sounds miserable! i'm so sorry!
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