Poor Penelope!

Yesterday morning Penny was up at 6:30 screaming because she couldn't breathe comforatbly. She had stridor (Does your child make a harsh, high-pitched sound when he or she breathes in (stridor)? and had that croupy cough that makes you worried. She seemed to calm down quickly so I went to work and left her with Scott.

Well, this morning, she woke up alarmed about at 5 am. Not only was she breathing funny due to the stidor and the croup, but she got her self so upset she would go into these fits where she made herself really stiff and with her clenched hands she would rub and hit herself all over her ear-temple region on the head. This was accompanied by an even more shrill scream. Her poor throat must have been on fire. She wouldn't take liquids and there was nothing we could do to calm her down. She didn't seem to be turning blue and because she was crying loudly we knew she was breathing somewhat, but no parent wants to see their child in so much pain. At 5:40, yes, forty minutes, I was starting to think we should take her to the ED because I was so concerned that she was not going to be able to calm herself and breathe right. Instead I called the pediatrician and was told by the answering service that I would be getting a call back from a nurse first. Now, I have a lot of respect for nurses, but if I wanted to talk to a nurse I could have called my insurance company's 24-hour helpline. I told the answering service about her heart defect and that I would really rather have the doctor call me, but she said that this is how it is done now. Does this seem wrong to anyone else or am I over reacting? I don't know. The nurse called back within 5 minutes and suggested we run the shower. The steam did help and after the 15 minutes or so Penny seemed happier. She stopped crying and even smiled a bit when I played our "Peeyew stinkie feet!" game. We were called back by the nurse and she listened to Penny's breathing over the phone to tell us that we could bring her in during office hours if we wanted to. (Our pediatrician has 9am to 12 pm hours on Saturday.) I decided not to because, they aren't going to be able to do anything for her. Croup just has to run its course. I just feel bad because it is clear she isn't moving that phlemgh that she is trying to hard to get out.

Does anyone else have any suggestions out there? She has been playing fine since we got back up at 8am (yes! she went back to sleep thank God), and she ate a pretty hefty lunch, but I am worried for tomorrow morning.