My little man is sick. Yesterday he started getting a bit whiny and clingy. At first I thought he was just having trouble adjusting to a "normal" day after all the hubbub recently. And then I was sure it was related to teething. Right before bed I thought he felt a bit warm but Mark didn't think so. I tried to take his temperature with the thermometer pacifier we have, but he kept spitting it out before I got a reading - so I gave up. After I put him down for bed I kept hearing these tiny plaintive moans in the monitor so I went up to check on him. He felt undeniably warm - but I had to make sure. This ushered in the great thermometer debacle. The pacifier wasn't cutting it and there was no way I wanted to take his temp anally so I got out the ear probe thermometer. I think I took his temperature 15 times and the readings ranged from 95 to 101 - with the bulk of them up by 101. The ear probe sucks. Using your wrist is just as reliable if not more. And my wrist said he was definitely hot. Now what?
My first inclination since this was his first fever was to freak the fuck out and take him to the emergency room. But I've read all of those crappy childcare books and listened to the on-hold message at my pediatrician's office and they both make fevers seem like no biggie. So Mark pulled out the books again and we decided to just give him infant Advil and get him back to sleep. Once he nodded off I tried to put him in his bassinet and he woke up. I got him back to sleep, tried to put him in his bassinet and he woke up. I got him back to sleep, tried to put him in his bassinet and he woke up. See where I'm going with this? So I just said screw it - no washing of face, changing of clothes and brushing of teeth for me - I was obviously already in bed for the night. And a long night of infant tossing and turning it was.
This morning he still felt warm so we wanted to call the pediatrician. I figured they would ask what his temperature was and I didn't want to tell them "Of the 15 unreliable times I took it with the ear probe I would guess HOT." So Mark again told me we would have to take his temperature anally. I was horrified by this proposition, as I certainly wouldn't want anyone putting a thermometer up my ass. Especially without asking. And what if we put it in too far. But I finally caved and made Mark do it. Problem was the book said we needed Vaseline and we didn't have any. This put me on a hunt to find lubrication that would agitate his little butt. After considering Desitin, cooking oil and lip balm we settled on aloe vera gel. And you know what? Noah didn't even flinch when he was having his temperature taken. It was like he didn't even notice. And the result was 100.3, which is high for the morning since typically your body temperature is at it's lowest.
Mark headed to the mines and I manned my listless baby while waiting to call the pediatrician when they opened. After a lengthy hold I got the nurse practitioner. I said my infant son had a fever this morning and through the night but wasn't really exhibiting any other symptoms but whining and clinginess. She asked if he was still nursing. (HA! As if my boy would EVER stop eating.) I said yes he was. She said it sounds like he was fighting off a little virus and that I shouldn't worry about solid foods, but if he stopped nursing then I should bring him in. But since he was drinking I should just treat his fever with infant Advil. She said there was a common virus called Rosalea (sp?) that would cause three days of fever with no other symptoms and then would cause a rash once the fever broke - and that was one possibility but there was no need for me to bring him in unless he developed more symptoms. I asked if I should avoid feeding him solid foods and she said no - if he would eat them then great. (HA again. He demolished breakfast with his normal vigor.) So I'm pampering my whiny, clingy baby and hoping he gets well fast. He's too wiped out to really play but doesn't want to just sit so he's a bit of challenge at the moment. Sick babies get to watch a little TV I've decided, so we watched about 20 minutes of Baby Genius on OnDemand this morning. Those floating reflective shapes are trippy!
3 comments:
I remember trent having roseola, but he was older. I too had an issue with finding vaseline recently, and after going through similar substitutes (hand cream, baby oil, ky jelly - which probably would have been fine, but it was just too weird) I remembered I had a little jar of vaseline from when trent was a baby. and I found it. so we used 10 year old vaseline to lube up poor bella's butt.
it sounds like he's holding up well. give him a kiss for me!!
There are these cool strips now that you just hold on the kid's forhead to take a temperature. They're not quite as accurate as the back door method, but give you a pretty decent reading. Feel better soon Sir. Noah!
This is the blog entry you will need to share with Noah's first girlfriend.
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