You give me fever....

So, we go from saying "Hi" on the phone and babbling non-stop to Bella and Allie one night to tired, listless and burning up the next. How does this happen? I could tell from the moment I saw Gabby Wednesday evening that she did not feel well. Her eyes said it all.

Daddy had picked her up from "school" and taken her shopping - something they both love. Then Daddy happily took the Trooper to the Jazz game (hey they finally won) and left baby and I home alone to fend for ourselves. All was well until I noticed in her nurse napping that she felt really warm to me. Up we got to take her underarm temp and it said 101. That can't be right! Under her arm even?!?

So I did what the Pediatrician told me I must do the very first time I met her when Gabby was being treated for jaundice and needed her temp taken every 2 hours or so since she was spending her days and nights in the bili-lights - I took her rectal temperature.

Never a pleasant experience. NEVER.

It read 103.4. OH MY GOD. I took it again to make sure. Now it said 103.2

OH MY GOD.

So what do I do next? What every new mother would do in this circumstance - I called my own mother. Then I called the doctor's answering service and waited by the phone for one of the doctors to call me back. Great. Poor Gabs gets her worst fever ever on a night when Hubby took the car WITH THE CARSEAT to the Jazz game! The doctor returned my call and said if the fever didn't go down Gabby should go to either an all-night pediatric clinic or as a last resort, the children's hospital e.r.

Great. No car. No carseat. What should I do? Call a cab? No, they won't let me take a baby in the backseat without a carseat because it is against the law. Find the infant carrier and hope she still fits in it? I could do that, but that would require me putting Gabby down, running to the basement, locating the carseat and then trying to figure out how to buckle it in said cab without the base...so I call the sister-in-law and ask just how to do that. She pauses and says she isn't sure but she will come down with her car and I can put Gabby in Evan's carseat it will just be loose. Then my brother Nick pipes in with an astounding NO - that just isn't safe. Level-headed Nick then speaks some reason to us all - call Hubby at the Jazz game and let him know that we may be making an emergency trip to either an all night pediatric clinic or Primary Children's Hospital.

Luckily, it never came to that. The fever went down after a few swigs of Ibuprofen and Tylenol. The next day it was determined that Gabby's ear infections had not fully healed and she would need to have antibiotic shots for the next three days. These are the shots that are mixed with lidocaine because they supposedly hurt so much. Poor little kiddo. But, if it makes her feel better then so be it.

Only it didn't make her feel better. In fact, her temp Friday evening was 103.8! So now they think the infection could be viral and therefore must run its course. Lovely.

In the meantime, Gabby is a slightly more pale, slightly more tired, slightly more feverish, slightly more fussy version of her former self. But, she was just tickled pink to be eating breakfast at Dee's Sunday morning in their way old-fashioned and likely years past recall highchairs. Regardless, she nibbled on hashbrowns, ham and pancakes and threw her goldfish on the floor so I think she is getting back into the swing of things, slowly but surely. Bless Her Heart!