We Survived our First Visit to the ER! (Yikes!)

Last Friday Madeleine woke up with a slightly sniffy nose but was her usual happy self. No fever, no coughing - just the sniffles. That night after I'd returned home from a marathon Christmas shopping expedition I went in to check on Madeleine who was already long asleep. She seemed fine but was snoring a bit. Within the hour I could hear her breathing very loudly through the baby monitor and when I went in to check she was having a very hard time getting air into her lungs and was having horrible coughing spells and was not able to catch her breath. I knew it had to be Croup so we tried all the home remedies - taking her outside in the cool air, running a steam shower for her. I was very patient (said with sarcasm) and allowed approximately one minute for each of these remedies to work. As the results were not immediate I called the nurse line and was trying to patiently wait for them to call us back. After an interminably long three and a half minutes I decided waiting was not an option and we all piled into the car to drive to the emergency room. Did I mention it was 11:30 at night? We then spent the next four hours waiting, waiting, getting chest x-rays to make sure she didn't have pneumonia, waiting, waiting, waiting, getting an oral steroid treatment and waiting. Madeleine is fine now thank goodness and Isabelle was a great trooper, she and Madeleine both stayed awake the entire time we were at the hospital.

"See Mommy! All a baby needs are a few steroids to make things right with the world once again!"

Here's the explanation to my obscenely dirty windows.

And now I'd like to set the record straight as to what exactly happens in the ER in the middle of the night. I was of course expecting for it to be just like on T.V. Hot doctors, steamy love scenes - the works! I was sorely disappointed - no George Clooney, no McDreamy, not even a less desirable McSteamy. The television has lied to me! T.V. did get some things right. We were able to spend a couple hours on a cot in the hallway and were so excited when we were given our own room. This was short-lived however as they quickly wheeled in the guy trying to sleep off an Oxycontin overdose. We were then barraged with all manner of screaming relatives and less than polite body noises. Thanks emergency room for a night to remember!

What's the silver lining to all of this? Listening to Isabelle's spontaneous prayer in the car. "Dear God, please watch over my baby sister Madeleine and make her better soon. Amen."

On another note, it's been burrr cold 'round these parts. Madeleine says, "Awwww Gee Mom! Do I have to wear this get-up? It's doing nothing to improve my rep. with the cool kids."