Fever

This has been the word of the week thus far. When Calleigh woke up from her nap on Sabbath afternoon, I noticed her cheeks were flushed. An hour later when we took her temperature, it was 105. She had a high fever back a month or two ago that turned out to be nothing but it never got quite that high. I recalled from my research at that time that you should pay attention to how the child is acting rather that just reacting to what is obviously a high number. In this case, Calleigh was acting normally including eating, drinking, and playing so we decided to just give her a lukewarm bath and some Tylenol and see if that did the trick. It did lower the temp but the next morning it was back and by the end of the day, it was back up in the high 104's. There were no other symptoms to speak of. After some encouragement a family member, we ended up calling the pediatrician's office at about 10 pm on Sunday night just to make sure we shouldn't be doing something. They confirmed that if she was acting normally, we should just proceed with what we were doing but come in the next morning. Well, things had been fairly normal but the night didn't go so smoothly. Calleigh woke up shortly after we called the doc and didn't want to go back to sleep. Duncan offered to have her sleep with him (I was sleeping downstairs on the couch). At about 2:30, Duncan attempted to take Calleigh into her own room (because he hadn't slept a wink) but she woke up right away and did not want to go into her crib. So I ended up bringing her downstairs with me and she fell asleep on the loveseat. Naturally, when I woke up to feed Aubree at about six, Calleigh woke up and wouldn't go back to sleep. I was so tired and now I had to come up with a way to entertain a toddler at 6 am (just not used to that since she usually sleeps until 7:30). What can I say but I brought out the DVD's and let her watch a music one while I tried to catch a few more Z's. Ahhh, the joys of having two kids!

We got an appointment at the doc at 10 am and I got Elaine to come with me. No way was I going in alone knowing how Calleigh was about to freak out. Which she did. So there we were at the doctor for the fourth time in less than two weeks. And we'll be back on Friday for Aubree's two week appointment. As we waited for the doctor, Calleigh kept repeating over and over again "I don't like Doctor Anne." Thankfully she didn't say it to her face. When Dr. Anne looked her over, sure enough, she couldn't find anything wrong with her. Apparently toddlers can just spike these high fevers with no other symptoms. There's nothing you can do about it except give them Tylenol and Motrin. We've continued to do that and the fever has been around 101 today so I think things are wrapping up - - hopefully. Fortunately last night she stayed in her crib all night and unbelievably slept until 9:30 this morning. Obviously she was trying to catch up on her sleep that she missed from the previous two nights. Must be nice.

Aubree is doing well. She still sleeps pretty much all the time including when she's supposed to be eating. During the middle of the night feedings, she's been falling asleep on the boob after only about 10 minutes or so. Unfortunately I think this is causing her to only go two hours between feedings at times. I try to keep her awake by unbuttoning her clothes, rubbing her chest and feet, blowing on her face, sitting her up, etc but none of it seems to be working. Somehow I need to get her to eat more. But, I can't complain about the sleeping. Once I put her that swing, she's golden. I did try the Pack N Play again last night, which I had moved out of our room and into her room, but without a ceiling fan in there, I was roasting and ended up coming downstairs during the night and back to the swing. She slept well in it though so I think if we get a fan for the room, we'll be able to stick with the Pack N Play. By the way, let me make it clear that Duncan is by no means complaining about my being in our room with the baby and making noise. I just feel a lot more comfortable when I know we're not bothering anyone so I'm happy to be sleeping on the couch downstairs or on the futon in Aubree's room.

As far as how things are going for me, I haven't taken any pills since about Friday or Saturday and I would say I'm virtually pain free. I have some slight discomfort from the surgery but it's not bad at all. I go to the doctor on Thursday and I'm hoping he'll clear me to lift things again (as if I'm not!) and also to take a bath. Boy, do I miss my baths. As of today, I've lost 17 of my 32 pounds so I'm feeling pretty good about that. I wish I had kept track last time to see how my progress compares.

It's 11:30 and Aubree is now sleeping in her swing which means I should now be sleeping also. But let me just tell you a quick Calleigh story. The other day I was in my bathroom and I saw Calleigh dipping her finger in Duncan's open contact case. There was still saline in it and I could see that she was rubbing it on her eyelids. I asked her what she was doing and she said in a very serious voice, "Putting on my contacts."