Hit by the Croup

Well....not me, but Blake has been. We took him to the pediatrician's office last night and he definitely has allergies (thanks, Raun) and is more than likely allergic to ragweed. If you don't live where we are, it's apparently been pretty bad in the past few weeks. He has been taking Zyrtec for the past two weeks, but his coughing got worse on Saturday. The doctor said that the Zyrtec helped to prevent an ear infection. Thank goodness! However, she said that the cough was the croup. She warned us about having to take him out in the cold somewhere (does rain count?) or putting his head in the freezer for a few seconds to help constrict his little airways. She warned me that it was a scary sound, but that it shouldn't last longer than 15 minutes. I'm hoping it doesn't come at all! She has him on 3 days of steroids. That's right, my baby will be pumping iron in the morning with me! Before she gave us the prescription, she said, "I'll just go ahead and tell you that steriods tend to make babies really hyper." I proceeded to ask the dreaded question of, "well, can we wait until the morning?" to which she replied "No, he needs to get it in his system tonight since the coughing is usually worse at night." Oh what fun! Raun and I were debating as to who gets to do the night call! Oh yeah....and the last thing she said was...."Don't be surprised if he eats a lot. My 2-year-old daughter just came in for this yesterday and is on steroids and she ate 2 peanut butter sandwiches in one sitting." Crazy! Guess grocery shopping is in my near future!