Yes, It Is. No, It's Snot!

So the whole family has colds this week. Ian started out with it last week, and by the weekend we were all afflicted. Last night the really bad part of the colds started, the coughing. When it's just the congestion and snot part of a cold when you have kids, it's no big deal. Sure, the constant nose picking and lack of nose blowing skills is gross and annoying, but it doesn't interrupt your sleep. I can handle the stealth nose wipes on my clothes, the constant green goo streaming out of the nose, and even the sneeze that ends with a splat of bodily fluids on the floor. But the coughing that comes after the snot has congealed and clogs the nose is the worst. Emma was up at 4:00 AM last night coughing and hacking and it was not letting up. After some sips of water and sitting up had no effect on her coughing, I got her to take some cough medicine. (No easy feat for medicine phobic children like mine!) That took 30 - 40 minutes to kick in. Then, at 5:45 Emma was asking if she could get up. This after being up with Zoe twice between 3:00AM, once because she woke up, and the other because her leg was stuck through a slat in the crib.

Then, today at Emma's nap, when she finally layed down after getting out of bed fourteen thousand times (curse the big girl bed!), she coughed so much she couldn't go to sleep. That's when little sister Zoe woke up from her nap coughing, and we all decided to go downstairs for some chocolate milk.

When I picked Ian up from school, his teacher said he had some bad coughing episodes during the day.

Now Emma is laying asleep in her bed, coughing. Do I wake her up to give her cough medicine which will wear off in 4-6 hours and will cause her to be awake for an hour in the middle of the night after it wears off (not because she's coughing but because it has this weird effect on her)? Or, do I hope she'll stop coughing and then give it to her in the middle of the night when the coughing comes back?

I hate colds.