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They say you’re never really ready for your baby’s first sickness, but I didn’t realize how very true that was. Liam decided that for his first time being sick, he wouldn’t deal with the small stuff. We don’t do things halfway in this house, apparently.
It started Tuesday afternoon, when we thought Liam felt a little warmer than usual. A quick temperature check during a diaper change showed that he was running a low grade fever. I’d heard before that teething can sometimes cause a fever and we’d definitely been teething the last couple of weeks. So I really didn’t think anything of it. Besides, I also knew that if it was a sickness instead, you’re supposed to let his body and the fever fight the virus. But J was concerned about how high it was getting and how miserable Liam was, so I called the pediatrician anyway.
The pediatrician’s office confirmed that it was indeed some sort of bug he was fighting off and told us to bring him in if it was still just as high the next day (we’d been hovering around 102 for quite a while). After our second sleepless, awful night in a row, I was elated to find that Liam’s temperature was close to normal the next morning. My relief was short-lived, so we headed in to our pediatrician’s office just to have him checked out. I admit, I didn’t give him anything for the fever before we left. Part of me wasn’t sure if I was supposed to, in case they needed to do anything in the office. But part of me wanted to prove to them that I was not the overreacting mom rushing her baby to the doctor’s at the first sign of a little sniffle. I was shocked when we got there to find out his temperature had gone all the way up to 104.
104. My heart might have skipped a beat.
No wonder why the little man didn’t feel very good. He’s not usually a snuggly baby, but all he wanted to do was lay his head on my chest. When you go to the pediatrician for sick child visits, they run through a list of questions to try to narrow down where you might have picked up a bug. Has he been around any other children lately? What about people who might have been sick? You’re home with him, right? Does he go to a daycare? We don’t keep Liam in a bubble and if we’re being completely honest, we’re not that careful about where we take him. We cart this kid around practically everywhere with us and we have since he was a newborn. Yes, even during flu season. But truthfully, the most likely culprit is that J came into contact with something at work and brought it home. Going on medical runs will expose you to just about anything. It’s just another part of the job, no matter how often you wash your hands or your clothes.
Thankfully, a good dose of ibuprofen made everything a little more bearable and two more days later he was completely fever free and back to sleeping through the night. Goodness, we missed the sleep. I know that sickness is going to happen and we’ll just take it in stride, but the first big one seems like the final inauguration into parenthood. It’s like as soon as you buy a house and the water heater breaks, right? Glad that part’s over. Sickness begone.
I am so happy to have my healthy, smiley, giggly baby back.
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