Fever

Carter scared the crap out of me yesterday.

His sitter called me at 4:30 and said he felt very hot and she though he had a fever. I left work about 20 minutes later and got him and as soon as I saw him, I knew something was very wrong. His cheeks were bright red and his eyes looked a little glassy. He just looked "off." And he definitely felt warm.

I put him in the carseat and noticed that he was just lethargic. Had his head to the side just staring off into space. I called Chris to let him know and then frantically texted Girl at each stop light to see what I needed to do. My mothering guru, that one.

Took Carter to CVS to get some Infant Motrin (we only have Tylenol at the house) and I picked up an ear thermometer while I was there. The lady at the checkout was joking around with a coworker while ringing up the woman in front of me and it was taking forever. I'm holding Carter and he's grunting and moaning and his eyes were all red and watery and he was hot as hell, so I channeled my inner rudeness and said, "Come on!" a little louder than...um...normal voice. That caused the worker, the woman in front of me, and the woman behind me to look at me, and once they saw my sick little baby I got a lot of sympathy and kindness. And quickness. That's all I wanted, people...make it snappy! I tried to have the worker open the thermometer right there so I could determine if I needed to head home or to the hospital, but her scissors were crap and they weren't working. Dammit.

Got home and as I was walking into his room to strip him, he vomited EVERYWHERE. I was soaked, he was crying, I started crying and shaking. It was scary. I stripped him down and changed his diaper and tried to nurse him, but he just wanted to scream. I called the doctor's office (in between talking to Holly, Chris, and my mom) and left a message on their urgent line because I had just taken his temperature and it was 103.5 in one ear and 102.9 in the other. Needless to say, I was terrified. I was holding him tight and shushing him and trying so hard to comfort him and make him feel better. I was so scared that he'd start having a seizure at any second. Whatever, I'm a scared First Time Mom...sue me.

I finally got him calmed down enough to where I gave him a dose of Tylenol and he started to drift off to sleep, but he woke up about 10 or 15 minutes later and was groaning and grunting and sort of heaving. He would throw up little bits, but nothing like that first one. By the time Chris got home an hour later, his fever felt like it was down (and it was...to about 102) and he was smiling at his Daddy. He had bouts of screaming that would last a few minutes, then he'd calm down for a few minutes, then screaming again.

We put him in his crib at 8:30 and he didn't go to sleep until after 9:00, which is very unlike him. I wanted to sleep with him so bad but he wasn't falling asleep in our bed so I had to take him to his so he could get some rest. By this point his fever seemed to be closer to normal.

At 9:30, our phone rang. It was the doctor's office...3 1/2 hours after I left them the message. She was very nice and apologetic and said their paging system was down because the electricity was out and all the pages were just now coming in. Since we seemed to have things relatively under control at that point there wasn't much she could advise us to do. She said if his temp spiked during the night to over 104 to call her and then head to the hospital. If it stayed under 104 then she wanted us to come in in the morning to have him checked out.

(Side note: If they think I'm paying the $15 they charge for after-hours consults, they're crazy. Not after waiting 3 1/2 hours for the call.)

At 1:30 I woke up and went in to check on him and he felt completely normal. His cheeks were cool and he was sleeping soundly. Thank GOD. He woke up to nurse at 3:30 and 6:30, pretty much like he normally does, and this morning he was fine. More fussy than usual, but no fever. And that fussiness could be because he had a little less sleep than he normally does.

So, he's at daycare today and every time the phone rings I'm scared it's his sitter calling me to come get him.