I Found the Lion...

It all started Friday around lunch time, after a very fun park playdate with little cousin, C....

My little girl is rarely one to get sick. Sure, she gets the occasional case of sniffles, but other than that she has been healthy as a horse. But, while we were eating lunch on Friday, I leaned over to give A a hug since she was being such a big girl eating lunch in a booster and that is when I felt it...she was on fire.

Naturally I panicked and thought of racing her to the doctor for immediate support, but then thought about it a little more and realized I didn't even have any hard evidence. What was I going to say..."um, yes, hello, my daughter is on fire?" Yeah, I didn't think that sounded too good either.

So we headed home to take her temperature. As I am aiming the thermal ear thermometer and praying my body temperature is off and she is not really as hot as I think, I pull it out to read 103.9.

Okay, now I have some hard evidence and I really start to panic. I call the doctor immediately and they reassure me that her temperature is not really that high and to just give her some Motrin and wait it out. Have you ever been told not to panic when every cell in your body is in full blown alarm mode? Well, I had no other choice, I gave her the Motrin and put her down for a nap, sitting outside her door with the monitor the whole time.

And that was the start of our fever filled weekend. The rest of the weekend was spent laying low and tending to a sick little girl.

I know we reached the worst when after a day and a half of fluctuation, A hit 105 at 10pm last night. Again, naturally I go into panic mode assuming her little brain cells are frying as we speak, and jump out of bed to throw on the first outfit I see.

Hubby calls me down a little and reiterates that we are not going to gain anything by going to the ER without calling her doctor first, so I dial the weekend on-call doctor and wait in agony for the six minutes it takes her to call me back.

Apparently the ear thermometers are not quite as accurate as I thought and again the doctor tells me not to worry, and to give her some Motrin. I am a little wiser this time around however and question her on exactly when I SHOULD begin to worry.

"Well, if her fever does not go down at all within thirty minutes of giving her Motrin, then you should bring her to the ER." she calmly tells me.

Great, so I am 30 minutes away from being in a full blown panic attack? Don't you think this information would have been helpful before?!?

I check A's temperature every 5 minutes as she lays in her crib, trying to ignore my probing. After 10 minutes we are down to 104.2 and five minutes later we are in the 103's. Hubby and I decide we do not want her fever to get out of control throughout the night so we set our alarm for 3:30am, which would be about 30 minutes before we could give A her next dose. As the alarm beeps and I throw my exhausted self over the side of the bed, I hold my breath..."please be lower, please be lower" I chant all the way into A's room. Almost without waking her I feel her head and for once don't feel the scalding heat radiating through my hand. I gently take her temperature and creep out of her dark room to read the display...100.4...a number we have not seen since this whole fiasco started.

Relieved, I crawl back into bed for a few more hours of sleep.

And with only one relapse today around 2pm we have been fever free all day!

I know we have to miss school tomorrow (have to be fever free for 24 hours before attending...blah, blah, blah) which stinks because A love school, and it is E's birthday celebration...but I know everyone will have a better time celebrating when A is not a little contagious fire ball, running around, spreading germs.

Here's to no more fever in this house for a while...

xoxo

Daily Mom