Screening and Preschool on Parade

Wednesday night Kaitlynn had a horrible time sleeping. She kept waking up coughing, almost choking from coughing so hard. She was so exhausted and would just cry.

Thursday the P.A.T. Educator visited. She did a hearing and vision screening.

Kaitlynn painted her own nails.

Kaitlynn is so cute and complimentary. When she was painting her nails, MawMaw showed Kaitlynn her painted nails. Kaitlynn said "Good job MawMaw". She is always telling us good job or giving some compliment.

Dave and I attended a seminar / meeting at the ECC titled Preschool on Parade. It was so helpful to attend this. It really helped with our struggle / decision on whether to send Kaitlynn to the KMO this year and / or preschool in the Fall. I might write a post on that later.

Thursday Kaitlynn continued to cough a lot and have wheezy breathing. We were getting really concerned because we had seen no improvement. Thursday night she woke up a few times, but once she spent some time in a steamy bathroom and then a few minutes in the cold air, she was great and was able to sleep through the night. Thank you God!

Third Times A Charm

Late Sunday night / very early Monday morning, Kaitlynn woke up coughing. She could hardly sleep from coughing so bad. Monday, I tried waking her up to get her ready for our playgroup's playdate at Yummy & Co. She was crying and coughing and crying some more. The barking cough was back and the wheezy breathing began. She said her throat hurt and told me to call her doctor. She said she didn't want to meet her friends or get a cupcake. I tried calling the pediatrician's office for about 30 minutes before I could get through. I guess lots of kids must be sick. They were able to get her in later in the afternoon.

When we went to her appointment, the barking cough had stopped, but she was still coughing. I was concerned that the Croup was back. She had it in November, December and now again? 3 times in less than 3 months? What is going on? The pediatrician checked her out and confirmed that it was Croup (again). She gave some samples of steroids and said she may have to take them for 4 days (if she isn't better after 2 days). She said there are a few viruses going around that are causing Croup. She also said that if Kaitlynn gets it again, she will send us to a specialist to have things checked out. It is very concerning to me that my healthy daughter is getting sick so much now. Croup 3 times in less than 3 months! Maybe it never completely went away in December. I'm not sure, but I sure hope she gets better and stays better.

Sick Again and Christmas Crafts

Kaitlynn came down with the stomach virus last week. She had diarrhea and was vomiting. The vomiting lasted about 7 hours.

Sunday evening, Kaitlynn woke up from a late nap with a barking cough. Sound familiar? Yeah, I think she has croup again. She had it right before Thanksgiving. I don't understand how my very healthy little girl went from hardly ever getting sick to being sick a lot. This year she has had an ear infection, several viruses, croup, stomach virus and now croup again. The only thing that has changed is that I am doing in-home childcare. But it's not like I have a house full of kids. I typically only have 1 child at a time, sometimes 2.

We are giving her children's Motrin and sitting in the bathroom frequently for the steam from the shower. I just hate seeing her not feeling well. I am really concerned with how often she has been sick lately. We need to purchase a new humidifier. We've never liked the one we purchased when she was first born. It's The First Years American Red Cross Cool Mist Humidifier. I just don't think it works and have never noticed a difference when we have used it.

Kaitlynn worked on some Christmas crafts Wednesday afternoon when she was feeling a little better. She had so much fun making these crafts. We had some photo Christmas cards left over, so I cut her pictures out and she pasted them to a couple of wreaths. She made a photo wreath for MawMaw, too. She enjoyed cutting the pictures of mommy and daddy and pasting them on a separate wreath.
Here's just a few of the crafts she made.

Morning at the ER

We were out pretty late for MawMaw's birthday. After we left MawMaw's to come home, Kaitlynn started swallowing hard, choking and gagging in the car. It lasted about a minute, then was fine. She fell asleep in the car shortly after that. We got home, put her to bed and she slept for about an hour. She woke up screaming and crying, swallowing hard, gagging, choking and seemed to be having a hard time breathing. We called the pediatrician's exchange and a nurse called us back immediately. She heard Kaitlynn over the phone and said she sounded like she was very uncomfortable and we needed to bring her in for a chest x-ray. Her concern was she might have swallowed something that she wasn't supposed to or that got stuck in her throat. We got to the ER and were put in a room pretty quickly. A nurse checked her out and she seemed to be doing better. She said they were very busy and it would take awhile for a doctor to come in. Thankfully they had movies to keep her busy. We watched "Cinderella". We waited a little over an hour before the doctor was able to see us. At that point, Kaitlynn was ready to go home. The doctor checked her out and ordered a chest x-ray. The doctor said the x-ray wasn't the most clear cut case of croup she'd ever seen, but all of Kaitlynn's symptoms really seemed to point to croup. They gave her a dose of steroids and Motrin and gave us information on croup and what to look for, etc. The doctor said she was concerned that it might be turning into pneumonia because every time we asked Kaitlynn where she hurt, she would point to her lower back and tell us her back hurt. We are thankful that it wasn't more serious.

Kaitlynn's pediatrician called that afternoon to check on her. It was reassuring to talk to the pediatrician. She said croup could last up to 5 days.