2 Colds and an ER visit

So yesterday Elijah and Lauren had colds. I kept Elijah home from school, but he really seemed fine all day. He has the sniffles and a cough, but it is winter right? Kind of comes with the territory. Lauren on the other hand was suffering all day. It got to the point that at the end of the day she would cough and cry, cough and cry all night long. I accepted that I would be up all night with her. At 2:30 am, she again coughed and cried and I went to go comfort her. Then I noticed that she had woken up Ally. So I went in to comfort Ally. Ally had not been sick and had been fine the day before. But then again she doesn't complain. When I was holding her I realized that she sounded funny. She was doing a barking cough, then a long drawn out wheeze. I held her for a couple minutes hoping it would stop, but it didn't. Then I called Matt in. He agreed, it was strange. So we held her, gave her various medicines and still, cough wheeze, cough wheeze. I go down and pull out the (ever trusty)What To Expect In the Toddler Years and look up her symptoms.

"Let's see, for a cough - 'Call doctor in the morning'
For a cough wheeze - 'Call doctor immediately.'" Oh man. So I call.

The night nurse tells me to take her to the emergency room that it sounds like the croup. I am not the clearest thinker in the middle of the night (but really, who is?) and almost said, "Do I have too?" but instead said, "She looks fine though. She is NOW sleeping peacefully in her daddy's lap."

The nurse informs me that it will get worse and I really should take her in now.

So I left Matt with the now feverish Lauren and took Ally the the ER. Now the drive over was interesting. It was snowing and had been snowing for sometime. So I had to dig out the car and then I "rushed" to the hospital at "top speed", about 20 mile per hour. I didn't drive, so much as slip and slide to the ER. It definitely made it an exciting drive over. It is interesting though what you think about in middle of the night emergencies. For instance:
I previously thought that the croup was an old and ancient illness, like polio, that no one got anymore. The only thing I knew about it was that Anne Shirley gave the Barry girl some sort of serum that make her throw up flem. Gross. Hmmm...maybe the emergency room was a good idea.
I also knew that my niece, Lyric, had it a few weeks ago and was in the hospital for a couple days. That is not good.

Well, Ally was very chipper and happy by the time we get to the ER. I told her we were going to see the doctor and she has a crush on her doctor. She was very disappointed that it wasn't her doctor. Apparently cold air helps open the airway. Well she ended up with a breathing treatment and some medicine. We were home by 5:00 am. She should be better in a couple days, but BOY are we tired.