Nice Sunday.

Last night was a long night. We spent the evening at Evan's parents and had supper. On our way there, Ardyn's cough started getting worse, and continued into the gagging cough. When she tried to eat anything solid, she continuously choked and gagged when it got in her throat, and coughed so hard for so long that she got a bloody nose. That freaked me out.

I ended up calling he pediatrician on call and they suggested if she got worse, or saw no improvement that night, that we take her to the ER and have them listen to her chest, do a chest Xray, and perhaps nebulizer treatments.

We got home from Evan's parents around 7:30. Ardyn was just beside herself between coughing fits and feeling icky. I gave her her Zyrtec. Then at 9pm I gave her a cough supressant. I told myself that if she was still awake in an hour, and it hadn't helped, that we would go to the ER. I called my friend Cari and got info, and Ardyn and I stood in the bathroom with the steamy shower going and I clapped on her back and let her breathe in steam. It didn't help much, maybe a little. At 10:15 I called Evan home from band practice because she had been lying down for almost a full hour and still couldn't sleep through coughing fits, which were still pretty serious. We took her to the ER and got a good Dr (yay!) who checked her out. They said her chest sounds pretty good, but she has an ear infection in her right ear, and started her on antibiotics right there and sent us home with our remaining doses. They told us to keep up with the Zyrtec and follow up with her pediatrician.

I was SO HUNGRY afterwards, Evan got me a value meal at McDonald's and I enjoyed fries, two cheeseburgers, and a coke. Ahhh. When we got home, he put Ardyn in our bed and got her to sleep. Then I crawled into bed with her and did the toss, turn, adjust thing while she coughed from about 1am till 5am. Around 7am she was actually so silent that I kept checking her to see if she was breathing. Apparently the worst of the coughing was over. Then by 9:30 or 10am she was awake! She rolled over, looked at me, and said "throat." I asked Evan to get her some ice water. She took one drink, handed it back to me and croaked "Popsicle." So she started out her day with a grape popsicle.

She really did well today, no serious coughing except when napping. We spent the whole day at Evan's grandparents' new house, with his parents. We ordered pizza, salad, and breadsticks and had a REALLY nice family dinner. We lounged, we watched TV, we played with Ardyn. I gave her some ibuprofen because I saw ear tugging and crankiness here and there. But just with the antibiotic dose last night, we saw vast improvement today. She was very tired this afternoon, and let me rock her to sleep (finally!) in the recliner at Grandma's... and really was doing well until the constant coughing spells kept waking her up during her nap. She slept on my upright and then Grandma Sue took over and held her for another 30 minutes or so while I went to the bathroom and stretched.

Tonight we got home later than usual, and so I started diapers and put Ardyn to bed, after giving her all her various medicines. I also typed up new directions for washing and drying diapers, in case I need someone to do that for me while in the hospital or when I get home.

I have a Dr appointment tomorrow with my midwife and then I plan on doing a few things like getting milk and eggs, etc. then I suppose I will catch up on laundry. Hopefully I will get some sleep tonight. I have Ardyn in her bed, but she's still alternately coughing and crying, so who knows if anybody will be able to sleep. I hate to put her in my bed AGAIN, because that's just bad bad bad if she starts to get used to that, but at the same time, when she's coughing that bad, if she wakes up alone she cries. Ugh.

Take care.