Flew The Croup

Croup. I've heard of it but never actually heard it. The Little One was doing well yesterday but early this morning my wife and I were awakened by her crying. That's when we thought we heard a seal barking. Like at a zoo seal display at feeding time. When we realized it was coming from our daughter we both kind of freaked. It lasted about 5 minutes and then the coughing turned normal. After she fell asleep again I was on the Internet looking up the symptoms. This morning from work I called the pediatrician to explain what had happened and to find out if the doctor wanted to see her or change her medication. She said there was nothing to worry about as long as her breathing doesn't become distressed. If The Little One doesn't improve by tomorrow then call and schedule an appointment. I feel better now that I know what it is and I can help her stay calm if it happens again.

Am I Awake Yet?

I am starting to crash. I am so tired. We ended up in the emergency room yesterday evening because we couldn't control The Little One's fever. When she got up to 104 my wife and I skedaddled to the ER with her. We got there a little before 7 PM and her temp was 103. We got to see the nurse who took vitals around 8 PM. Temp at that time was down to 102 and she went and got some medication to help reduce the fever and sent us back out into the waiting room.

At about 9:30 PM we were put in an observation/treatment room and waited for the doctor. It turned out that there were only two doctors on duty and they were pretty busy. About every hour and a half a nurse would come in and check vitals and The Little One's temperature was slowly going down. She fell asleep around 10:30 PM but woke up about every 45 minutes and would ask if we could go home.

At about 1 AM I was getting really frustrated and tired of this whole waiting routine and asked a nurse how much longer it would be. She apologized and said hopefully the doctor would be in soon. At 2:45 AM The Little One woke up and proceeded to scream and cry because she wanted to go. My wife and I couldn't console her to stop crying. I finally picked her up and walked around the room and into the hallway with her screaming about wanting to go home. It took about 10 minutes before a nurse came by and I said if a doctor doesn't see us soon we were going to leave.

At 3 AM the doctor came and examined The Little One. I showed him the prescriptions the pediatrician had given us the day before and he decided that a couple of injections of antibiotics were needed because he thought one of her ears was becoming infected. A couple of nurses came in and gave the injections and The Little One was a real trooper. We finally left at 3:30 AM.

There's got to be a better way to run an ER.

Old Wive's Tale

After surfing the Internet with the Little One's symptoms yesterday I came to the conclusion that it was a rare form of a degenerative bone disease that inflicts about 1.25 in 1,000,000,000 persons living in tropical environments. Once we got to the pediatrician's office and described the symptoms to the doctor, she examined the Little One's feet and legs and said not to worry. She said it probably was growing pains and explained that only about 20% of children experience this and it usually occurs at night after a day of physical activities. Just give some children's Motrin before bedtime and everything should be fine. Whew, what a relief. Oh, and it turns out that when I was a little tyke myself, I used to wake up in the middle of the night with pains in my lower legs. I had no recollection of that.

Growing Pains

The Little One woke up twice last night crying and saying that her feet hurt. Each time it took about thirty minutes of rubbing and massaging her feet and ankles before she would stop crying and fall back to sleep. I don't know what's wrong or if this is something to take seriously. I looked on the web for help and all that has done is make me more paranoid about what could be wrong. And the instruction manual is no help at all, either.

Not Asking For Much

I would like to see child-proof DVD cases. This evening I watched The Little One open around six DVD cases to find the one she wanted. Oh yes, she perused the front and back of the case but I guess she had to see the actual disc before deciding whether it was the one she wanted or not. She opened every case in less than a second or two. She did have trouble with the cases that had two clips you had to open before being able to open the case itself but she figured that one out pretty fast. If only the case were as hard to open as some of the discs are to remove from the case. You know, the ones where you have to push the center button and use your index finger to lift the disc and it starts to bow at alarming angles and you think the darn thing is going to snap in two before it pops out. Now that's how hard it should be to open the case.

Surprised

Took The Little One to the pediatrician today for her immunizations this morning. The doctor also wanted to do a blood count and lead screening so they had to draw blood, too. I was really dreading hearing her cry but she was cool as a cucumber. Not a wimper as they poked her arm to draw the blood nor did she flinch when she got the shots in her leg. Actually, when they stuck the needle in her vein she turned her head to see what had happened and was transfixed on the vial filling with her blood. I think she was more relaxed than me. Now if only my other daughter were the same when it comes to shots I'd be a happy guy!

I Can See the Light

I forgot to mention that at The Little One's birthday party, a friend of ours broke a major rule of gift giving. They gave her a puppy. At first I thought it was just a stuffed animal because it was sleeping but upon further examination I realized it was real. Ugh. I'm a firm believer that giving an animal away to someone as a gift without checking with them first is a big faux pas. This rule runs right up there at the top along with 'Never date a girl who's father calls her Princess.' Anyway, lucky for me that we had a birthday party to go to the next day and we regifted the puppy.

I am just about done shopping for Christmas. Every year I say I'm going to finish earlier but it never seems to work out that way. I think it's the same story for the thousands of other shoppers out in the stores today. I absolutely will not go to the stores this weekend, though. Much too much pressure and stress. Along with that goes this thought that I've been mulling around in my head. I can't decide what's worse; the commercialization of Christmas or organized religions' insistence that Christmas is too commercialized. I guess that could be discussed at another time, besides I've got to figure out if the Nativity Scene in the front yard is shorting out Santa and the reindeers on the roof. Oh, and I was just kidding about regifting the puppy. The thought did cross my mind but I quickly disregarded it.

Wow

It was an exciting weekend for the family. Friday night around 9 PM, The Little One fell down while playing with her sister. I went to her and picked her up and turned her towards me and that's when I saw all the blood running down her face. I quickly went to the other room and got some paper towels and about this time my wife sees all the blood. Her sister was with her so we all piled into the SUV and rushed to the hospital. About a minute after we started driving, The Little One stopped crying and was just talking away. She really likes to go for rides.

We got to the Emergency Room and she had the wound cleaned and x-rayed. The doctor didn't see anything major but had to put 3 stitches to close the cut on her forehead. When they gave her the anesthetic instead of a scream and crying, only a loud "ouch" came from The Little One. She gets to go back in a week to get the stitches taken out.

Also, the next day was her birthday party. You can see the bandage on her forehead in all the birthday pictures. Oh well, it will be something for her to laugh about when she's older. Man, splitting her head open and stitches before she's two years old. At least she was calmer than I was.

Arrrg

Spent over 1 hour and a half sitting in the pediatrician's waiting room this afternoon. After the wait, we were in and out in 10 minutes. Diagnosis: common cold. Rx: Prescription cough medicine. It's a wonder The Little One didn't catch anything else from being around all those other sick children. I guess the good thing is that in my opinion, all the children manifested the same symptoms. Cough, cough, sniffle, sneeze.