Fever

What a week.

Day 1, early Saturday:
Early last Saturday, in the middle of the night, Zoe woke with a fever. She went back to sleep fairly easily, but didn't get up again until we woke her at 10:00 am the next morning! 15 hours after we'd put her to bed the night before! Not good. She woke very puffy-, weepy- and purple-circle-eyed. Really not good. Snuggly and fussy too, she was sooo not our girl. She spent the day snuggling with Dave and by evening time, despite a less than stellar appetite, she was nearing closer to herself. Phew.

Day 2, Sunday:
...Except she fussed through the night Saturday, maintained a low-grade fever through Sunday and fussed through Sunday night, too.

Day 3, Monday:
Monday, we thought she was better - still mellow - but better. But after a shortish stint of shopping (Dave's idea to hit the sales at the outlets! I couldn't argue!), her purple circles re-blossomed and the fever spiked again. I felt pretty bad that she'd been such a great sport, feeling crummy, strolling around while we did our thing.

Day 4, Tuesday:
Early Tuesday morning (3:30am, because well, we were all up), we decided I should stay home with her that day. She needed more snuggle and to just be home. We thought she was coming out of it, but she still had her low-grade fever and still had purplish eyes. How pitiful!

Day 5, Wednesday:
Wednesday is our stay at home day and I honestly almost can't remember it now because, well, I think it was more the same, aside from our (now regular, monthly) visit with the Pediatrician. They didn't like hearing that she'd held on to a fever for so long and wanted to see her ASAP.

Blood pressure: UP!

Now, since the start of this, Zoe had held a fever. So how do you think it went at the Ped's office?

Lungs and sinuses and ears were all clear - which we expected because she hasn't been snotty at all. But there was no real fever to speak of (just over 99 degrees which, baby-wise ain't bad).

Her eyes though, were still purplish; it was possible that could be due to fatigue and fever. And the fuss was certainly there. She was NOT happy about her exam, did NOT appreciate the ear check and was probably as shaken up by the whole thing as I've ever seen her. With worse ideas at the back of her mind, the doc ordered up a urine analysis in hopes it was a bladder infection....which meant collecting pee from a baby!

Now, again, since the beginning of this, Zoe had been THIRSTY. Drinking tons of water and milk. So how do you think the pee collecting went?

They taped a very odd little baggy thing to her and had us hold her upright which was fine, except as far as she was concerned, she was done with the Dr's office. So, we took a stroll and offered a sip of milk or water every step of the way. NADA. No drinking. No thank you.

Sigh. Poor kid. I know I was feeling pretty darned bad about toughing out the fever up to this point. What is it about Dr's offices that make you feel like a bad parent sometimes? I mean, they weren't mad at us, but I just felt so bad for her whole experience there and so bad that it had come to that. But then again, would it have been any different if we'd gone any sooner? worse because we'd go there only to be have been told to go home, wait it out some more and still have to go back? I don't know.

So after a jaunt up and down the street, we headed back to the Dr's in hopes that she'd peed a little, but she hadn't. Then I spotted the faucet! Now, at home, running water is a sure-fire way to get pee from our baby. And bingo, it worked! Then came the waiting.

Day 6, Thursday: So of course yesterday we learned that the urine analysis was negative for a bladder infection. But they wanted us to keep them posted about the fever. Fine. She was actually feeling cooler...until Dave changed her mid-morning and discovered another bit of a spike.

After talking with the Dr. again in the late afternoon, we opted to not wait until Friday to see if there were any changes, especially since well, the Dr. was slightly concerned about this being a big, bad terrible something that I just won't name. (I know the depressive-meter on this posting is already running sky-high and I don't want to bum out my readers to the point of despair.) So, off I dragged poor bug to Children's Hospital for a blood draw.

No, she didn't appreciate that, either. And I, well, I was ready to cry, too.

I can't even to begin to explain how sad it was to be at Children's. I mean, it's a beautiful facility and the staff are all great, even cooing at Zoe despite the fact they've seen literally a million kids. But it was so sad knowing that all those kids are there because they are sick. Many of them are really sick. I just wanted to take our baby out of there.

But, fortunately, after a frustrating wait last night, we heard from the Dr. that all indicators did NOT point to the big, bad, terrible, unnamed something. Man. Thank goodness. My hearts go out to all the families at Children's who weren't blessed with the same kind of news we received.

But still, what the heck was this fever all about??

Day 7, Today: I stayed home with Zoe again. She seemed a bit better - slept better than she had since last week and ate a great breakfast. And, she was cooler to the touch. Yahoo! Later this morning, I spoke to the Doc and she said that after seeing the lab results and talking with the CDC, she's calling this an Adeno Virus and that this seems to already be on its way out. Needless to say, we're quite relieved. I'm not in any shape to argue with a sane conclusion here anyways.

So in the end, our baby is better. Not 100%, but better. I think perhaps our getting back out of the 'sick' mindset will help her, too. I think I'm going to take her for a walk in the last hours of sunlight.


Some cute pix and a couple of vids to lift everyone's spirits and witness what a great baby Zoe really is - even when she's sick:

Nice pets for her pal, Lucy


Gettin' feisty with the paparazzi


Fun times with blocks


New tricks