Fever Pitch

We’ve had a rough week around these parts. As I mentioned yesterday, Nora was cranky (due to teething) for the better part of last week. We had a bit of a reprieve over the weekend, but noticed that her appetite was decreasing. Otherwise, she seemed fine, so we attributed that to teething, too.

But when I picked up Nora from daycare yesterday, she just seemed… off. Sort of out of it. Lethargic. And she felt hot. Her daycare provider said that she had been fine all day, but had seemed kind of quiet since she had woken from her afternoon nap. She hadn’t noticed the fever, either, so it was probably pretty new. Poor kid was just not herself, but relaxed quietly on the way home.

I took her temperature as soon as we got in, and it was already 103 degrees, which happened to be her highest ever. Gave her ibuprofen and she perked up as the fever dropped to between 101-102. We put her to bed as normal.

I went in to check on her at one point during the evening and it was obvious she was still hot. But since she was sleeping peacefully and I had given her ibuprofen a few hours before, I let her be. But at 11:00, she woke up screaming, and when I went in, the child was simply burning up. Took her temp again, and it was up to 104 degrees. We felt awful for her. I gave her acetaminophen, put her back to bed, and we went to bed ourselves. With the exception of a brief stint at 5:00 a.m., she slept through the rest of the night.

Needless to say, I was home with a sick baby today. Her fever was still 102 degrees upon waking up this morning, at which time I gave more ibuprofen and then… well, fever-wise, she was OK. She played with me for a while, then seemed tired, so I put her down for a morning nap. I thought she’d probably give me a long one since she needed the sleep. But 45 minutes later, she was up again. And she.was.miserable.

The temper tantrums at every little thing that I described in this post? Imagine that kind of crying and screaming for AN HOUR, nonstop. She was NOT happy, regardless of what I did. Except this time I felt terrible about it because I knew she was not feeling well. I gave her more acetaminophen. I rubbed Orajel on her gums. I offered her food. I offered her milk. I turned on a movie. I tried to play. I tried just holding her. She was not having any of it. I very nearly ended up crying with her–several times. I just felt so helpless.

But after an hour of constant screaming, I sort of threw in the towel. Given her not-nearly-long-enough nap, I figured she was still exhausted, and took her back upstairs and put her in her crib. I had to endure 10 more minutes of the miserable crying, but then… silence. She passed out, and slept 2+ hours, at which point I had to wake her up to take her to her doctor’s appointment.

The recap of the doctor’s visit? No ear infection (which was the primary reason we went in). No real signs of anything, except for a runny nose. They said she likely just has some kind of virus. Nothing we can do but try to keep her fever down and push fluids on her.

She was in a great mood when we got home from the doctor, and played with me for quite a while. But by the time Michael got home from work, she was starting to crash again. And sure enough, her temperature just so happened to be creeping up at the same time. Her fever spiked back up to 102 degrees and I gave her ibuprofen AGAIN. She’s in bed sleeping now, but now we’re faced with what to do about tomorrow. Do we keep her home again? We probably should, since she’s had another fever. But her temperature was fine ALL DAY. And the doctor said she could have a fever for up to five days with a virus. *sigh*

I would love to continue to stay home with her, but my sick time is limited (end of the year–I’m running out!) and my work load is an issue. Michael can work from home, too, but it’s hard to work from home unless she’s napping.

Ah, the dilemmas of two full-time working parents.

In the end, all I want is for my girl to feel better. :(