Yesterday morning e-baby did not want to get up. She had to anyway, since we had a babysitter coming for the first time ever (you know, who wasn't family). She's a very responsible teenage daughter of a friend at work, and I trust her more than I'd trust any other kids her age that I know, but you know I was chewing my nails anyway. But it was great-- SNG and I took a ride on the road bikes for about an hour and e-baby had a GREAT time with her sitter. When I took the sitter home, e-baby fell asleep in the car, which seemed odd for 11am, but meh, kid probably played hard.
Dianaverse came over around lunchtime and we took e-baby to see some sheep in the fields down the street, which was super-fun. After we came back, e-baby was sleepy again, and was even staggering a little. So I put her down for a nap, and she slept for > 3 hours, and didn't want to wake up at 5pm. She felt warm. A little coughing, but not much else to speak of. Except that tick I pulled out of her ear last weekend. That one had me worried.
We went to the Whole Foods for some dinner (which e-baby was not interested in) and she got warmer. By the time we got home, she was 103.5. So quick into the bathtub, a dose of baby Tylenol, and once again, she couldn't wait to get into bed.
We set alarms to check on her, and at 12:30am her temp was OK. At 4:00 she was back up to 103, crying this weird, croupy cry and asking for milk. We gave her more Tylenol, 12 oz of cold milk, and read some books. Her temp came back down pretty quickly, and she was asleep again by 5:30. We all slept until 8.
No fever at 8. E-baby (and her daddy) gave me the sweetest Mother's Day cards, with a letter that made me get all sniffly, and everyone played and had a grand old time. At 11 we went grocery shopping and around the time we checked out, she was getting warm again. At home, she obviously felt badly and her temp was back up to 103.5, so we packed up a bag of toys, books, diapers and snacks and headed off to the hospital. It occured to me that pediatric urgent care would see her faster, so that's where we went. It was still 2 1/2 hours, but I bet the ER would have been twice that. Plus, you know, all those yummy staph infections.
Oh, have I mentioned that after getting shots every 3 months her entire life, e-baby is TERRIFIED of doctors?
They looked in her ears, listened to her chest, investigated her nose and throat, and took some chest x-rays. The good news: it is probably not Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, because there is an alternative explanation. The bad news? It's pneumonia.
Her oxygen saturation was good (99%) so it seems we caught it early. But poor kid. She missed (rejected, really) her lunch and most of her normal naptime because of the Urgent Care interlude. She's asleep now and won't be going to day care tomorrow.
How stupid is it that my first thought, when the doctor said she had pneumonia, was "It's my fault! What did I do to cause this?" There's nothing I did or didn't do to cause/prevent it, but something about motherhood causes a knee-jerk reaction that every bad thing that happens to your kid is a direct result of something you did or did not do.
Think some nice thoughts for e-baby, who will be on antibiotics for a couple of weeks and doesn't feel so good right now.
And on a totally happier subject, Happy Mother's Day to all my favorite mommies, moms and mamas. You are the bomb.
3 comments:
Poor E-baby. Thanks for letting us know what to look out for. I never realized that a little oen could get a fever and lose it over the course of 3 hours! We'll be thinking healthy baby thoughts for E-baby. Miss C and I (and DH of course) can't wait to see ya'll again. We'll have to try to figure something out eventually!
Yeah, Tylenol is pretty amazing. It can knock out a fever within 30 minutes, which is nice since having a fever feels SOOOO bad. But, it's only temporary, and the fever can come back just as quickly.
Oh man, the poor kiddo! Tylenol is definitely awesome at knocking out fevers (same with the baby Motrin), but man, how miserable they feel in between doses.
Of course you know the pneumonia isn't your fault, even though that was your first thought. I did the same thing when we found out about C-baby's asthma. Which is ridiculous, it's LeBon's crap genes that gave it to her, not mine. But I still blamed myself for... what? Not having strong enough DNA? I don't know. That Mommy Guilt is some pervasive stuff.
Hope she feels better, and also that no one else in the house catches it!
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