The last few days, Maddie has had a little cold. We had Christmas with my dad and step-mom yesterday and Maddie was happy and having a grand ole time. I put her down for her afternoon nap. When she woke up, (actually, she just kept sleeping so I woke her up at 5:15…later than she normally sleeps) she had a “barky” cough, but she seemed pretty happy. After I took her downstairs to play, I could hear her little voice sounded funny. She really needed to cough, but didn’t know how.
So I ended up calling the nurse line to see what they said. They told me to give her some nasal spray and run the shower (for the steam) for a while to try to loosen things up and help her breathe. And if she coughed all night long or her breathing got fast to call back. We did those things and by about 6:30, her breathing was a little fast. We called back and the nurse could hear Maddie on the phone and told us to take her to urgent care.
So we left for urgent care and Maddie had a 101 temp by the time we saw the nurse. They did a strep test (which was negative) and checked her ears (which they cleaned out a bit). Maddie then fell asleep in my arms in just her diaper. When the doc came back, he said she had croup. He prescribed some medicine for her and we took her home. Now we just have to watch her breathing and make sure she isn’t struggling to breathe.
We put a humidifier in her room and she slept all night and until about 8:30 in the morning. Apparently, the meds can make her hyper, but I haven’t noticed that yet. She just played this morning and wanted to snuggle. But she has been in good spirits. She gets the most upset when I wipe her nose!
Overall, croup isn’t too bad. It could have ben a much worse diagnosis. But this was the first time we had to bring her in to the doctor. Now she is napping and we will see how she is the rest of the day. I plan to give her lots of snuggles (when she wants them) and have a low-key day!
