The other night Maggie woke up with a croupy cough. You all know that horrid barking. Whenever Parly got the croup she always had to be rushed to the hospital. Not fun in the middle of the night. I have always found the running- the- shower- and- letting- the- hot steam- in- the room- relieve- the- croupiness method not so effective. Plus no hot water for my shower the next morning. Ugh. I HAVE found that taking the child out into cold air is the best and fastest method in relieving a croupy attack. Living here in St. George doesn't always guarantee cold air even at night, but I got lucky a couple of nights ago when Maggie got sick.
I went into her room and opened her window that is right by her bed. I bundled her up and we sat by the window breathing in the cold air. It worked great and soon Maggie was ready to go back to sleep. A few hours later she was barking again so I went in to repeat. She wasn't as excited to get up and over by the window. I told her she had to come over by the window so she could stop coughing and then she could go back to sleep. I told her to come and look at the air. I told her how great and cool it was and that the air would stop her coughing. So she came and we spent a few minutes commenting about the air and the stars and no moon. A couple more times like this and we made it through the night. No hospital visit. Not even a need to leave the room or really even get out of bed. Nice!
A couple of nights later Maggie woke up coughing. Not barking this time. So I went in to give her some cough medicine. She didn't want it. And kept spitting it out. Frustrating! I told her she HAD to take it so her coughing would stop so I ...I mean she could go back to sleep. She kept saying, "I wanna look at the air mommy." Sure. Sure. Now drink this and go back to sleep. I didn't get it until after I went back to bed. Look at the air. Oh, like we did for her croup. Funny. And smart.
