Poor baby

We have been very lucky that Emma has had a fairly healthy 10 months so far. Unfortunately, she has come down with a pretty rough case of croup this week.

All of the kids at Miss Sarah's house had colds on Monday, so when Emma started getting stuffy and cranky on Tuesday, we figured she had picked it up at her house. By yesterday, she had a nasty deep, barking cough and a fever, which none of the kids at Sarah's have had. She was wheezing with almost every breath by the afternoon. We called the pediatrician's office, who told us to bring her in this morning so that they could check her chest and her ears. The doctor heard one cough and said, "Yep. That's croup." She says it's the same virus that causes laryngitis in adults, but it's more serious in babies because when their trachea swells, it causes those scary loud raspy noises and can actually affect their breathing. The good news is that her lungs and ears are clear.

Since it's a virus, you can't treat the infection with antibiotics...it just has to run its course. The doctor decided to treat Emma with steroids to help with the swelling of her trachea. They tried the oral medicine twice, which I ended up wearing both times (this kid still has a very active gag reflex!), and then we finally gave up and decided to do the shot and get it over with.

We've all had a pretty rough last few nights, but her breathing sounds better tonight and the coughs are less frequent, so we are crossing our fingers that we all get some good solid sleep tonight. At least we have a three-day weekend to catch up on some of those missed zzzzz's...

Sadly, our little sick patient means that we won't be able to go to watch the Georgia game at our friends' house on Saturday because we don't want to get any of the other kids sick. But you can bet we'll be watching it here at home!