Hazel had croup but she is fine now

Two nights ago... when was that... um. Today is Wednesday so that makes it... Sunday! On Sunday night, the girls both had colds, but they went off to sleep OK. Hazel was a bit snuffly, and then more so.

By about 7 pm, her breathing sounded weird. Her inhale was noisy and rough-sounding, and the exhale was OK.

I rang the Maternal and Child Heath phone thingy, but they were engaged, so I rang Nurse On Call, and waited on hold for about 15 minutes, then I hang up and rang the first one again. I got through to their call-back service, and a nurse rang back in a little while. I held the phone up to the baby monitor so she could hear, and she said that we should take Hazel to a doctor. She was working out which 24-hour GP clinics were near us, when Hazel woke up and sounded really upset, and her breathing got worse. When she heard that, the nurse said to ring 000 and to forget the GP idea.

The ambos got here really quickly. Chris was the driver, and Sarah (who seemed really really young) was the talker. Sarah checked Hazel out, and we all agreed that she should go to Energency at the Austin, which is about five minutes away. They have a pediatrics section in Emergency. Trudi madly packed me a little backpack with nappies, changes of clothes, some toys, and an orange.

So off we went in an ambulance - my first time! Trudi stayed at home. Ivy had woken when Hazel was loud and upset, but she had settled by now.

In the ambulance, I had to sit on the patient bed, and be strapped in. I had Hazel on my lap, with no strap or anything. Luckily Chris was a lovely driver. I hardly noticed the corners.

At the Austin we waited in a corridor for a while. A nurse checked Hazel out, then a doctor. The nurse came back with a syringe of prednisone, which Hazel mostly drank and partly spat out. The two ambos were still with us as we waited in the corridor. Soon after the prednisone, Hazel came good. She started smiling at Chris and the other emergency patients. They were silently lying on stretchers with their eyes closed.

Eventually they found us a bed, so the ambos left. They were so nice and chatty. I liked how focussed they were, while also being calm and kind. They seemed so casual about everything. I suppose it's all in a night's work for them.

The kids' Emergency section at the Austin is like a newer, smaller version of the Emergency section at the Royal Children's. We had a bed in a cubicle with a curtain. The idea was to stay for a while to be sure that the drug worked well and that Hazel stayed good. We hung out on the bed. We played Cuddle the Dotty Teddy. We played Lets Lie Down and Try To Rest (that didn't go down well). The doctor came in a checked Hazel a few times. He said that prednisone has a stimulant effect - GREAT. After an hour and a half, the doctor said we could go.

By this time I'd chatted with Trudi a couple of times. She had asked my sister to come over and stay the night. If Liss had not come over, Trudi would have had to wake Ivy and brought her along when she came to pick us up. Thanks Liss!

When we got home, Hazel seemed really awake. We did a rapid re-enactment of the bedtime ritual (putting on her sleeping bag, hastily humming Twinkle Twinkle, one speedy rendition of Goodnight Moon) and then popped her into bed. She went off to sleep easily, and the rest of the night was mostly fine.

Since then she's been OK. The doctor said that the croup might recur the next evening, and to bring her straight in to Emergency if it did, but it didn't. They are both getting through their colds.

Here are the girls in the front yard this afternoon. They came out to watch me weeding the disaster that is our "orchard":