It all started on Monday morning. Addy had a slight cold (very minor) and we were scheduled to go for her 15 month doctor's appointment. So off we went. I told the doctor that she had a cold, but that she was sleeping and eating fine. He examined her and asked if she ever had a reaction to her vaccines before. The answer was no. She always took them like a champ. Never got a fever, maybe just a little bit cranky. So with that info in hand we decided to proceed with her vaccines that day. Oh, and did I mention that she is getting molars too???? Yup. But we plugged ahead. The doctor did warn me to expect a small fever this time given the combo of things going on.
So Addy got two shots (was supposed to get three, but they were out of one of them so we have to wait until her 18 month appointment). It went as expected at the time. Screaming, following by immediate calming when Mommy picked her up :)
Mike ended up getting out of work early, and Addy was pleasant and taking it all like a champ, so we decided to head out and pick some strawberries.
When we got home she was exhausted, so off for a nap she went. Well, when she woke up....BAM! It hit her. Mike got her up and said she was burning up. It was about 5PM at this time and she goes to bed at 7, so I wanted to wait and give her Advil right before bed. It would be less than 2 hours from then, so no big deal right?
Well, I have never seen my girl look like this before.
She was so pitiful. She wouldn't eat dinner, and she just sat there slumped down in her high chair while we ate. Normally she would never stand for being in that chair without food, but on Monday night she just didn't care. Then Mike and I took turns snuggling her for the next two hours.
Poor Baby :(
Look at her face. I'm sure she is thinking, "Why are you taking pictures of me in this condition?"
Don't mind the drool/snot stain on my shirt. She was so pitiful :(
For anyone who knows Addy, they know that snuggling for any longer than 0.2 seconds is very uncharacteristic for her. In general, she is too busy to be bothered with long periods of snuggling. So we knew she felt awful. Two hours and she never once tried to get down. Is it bad that we enjoyed our snuggle time? We obviously hated that she was sick, but we took full advantage of snuggling with our little munchkin. It was like everything else in our world stopped for those two hours. Cleaning and other chores were put on the back burner, and Mike and I did nothing but try to comfort our sick child. It was bittersweet.
And you know what? Despite it all, when Mike or I would walk into the room or talk to her, Addy would look at us and try to smile. It was the sweetest and most pitiful thing in the world. She couldn't even lift her head, but she would follow us with her eyes and try to smile at us.
When we put her to bed that night her temp was 103.5!!!! We gave her a cool bath and some Infant Advil and put her to bed. I am so used to Celsius from working in the hospital, so I got out my conversion chart and saw that 103.5 is 39.7 in Celsius. "Wow!", I thought. "That is really high." But we had just medicated her for the first time, so I knew we had to give it a chance to kick in. So we checked her temp again in an hour or so and it was 102.2. Then before we went to bed it was 100.9. So we rested a little bit easier knowing that the medicine was doing its job. And miraculously, Addy slept fine that night. Mike wanted to check and make sure she was still breathing before he left for work, and that was an easy job because you could hear her breathing from down the hall. Poor baby.
This was the first time that Addy was really sick, and definitely her first fever (not bad considering that she is over 15 months old). As any parent can attest to, it is excruciating knowing that your child is ill and you can't fix it. My heart was hurting that night and I know that Mike's was too. It's such a helpless feeling, and all that you want to do is take their pain away, but you can't. It gives me just the tiniest glimpse of what the parents that I see at my job must be going through, and I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy.
I gave Addy Advil around the clock on Tuesday, and as soon as it would wear off, the fever would return. Then on Wednesday her fever was finally gone (Yay!!!), but she was a miserable mess...all....day.....long. Luckily Mike unexpectedly got the day off so we could trade off who was taking care of her. We felt terrible that she didn't feel good, but that doesn't make it much easier to take care of a child who is crying all day, no matter what you do for her. Hence the comment about our nerves in the beginning of this post. It was a rough day for us all. I would go as far as to say it was her crankiest day to date.
Luckily, Thursday was a much better day and we were back to this:
Eating our food that is ;) (Don't mind the lovely mixture of avocado and yogurt in her hair.)
Addy has been fever free for three days, her cold is improving, and although I know her teeth are still bothering her, she has been much more pleasant and almost back to her old self. So much so, that today we decided to head back here:
Yup, things are getting back to normal around here :) Have a great weekend everyone!
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