Baby's First Fever

We handled Kaylani's first cold well enough back in January, and it turned out to be a really minor cold. But today Kaylani stepped it up a bit and had her first real fever. And because of that, our plans for a lazy Sunday started off with a whole lot of concern and a whole lot of love to help us get over it.

Kaylani woke up for the first time at 3am, which was just over 6 hours after we had put her down. Daddy took her, changed her, and got her ready for Mommy. It was then that he thought she felt a little warm, but since she was changed already and not too fussy, he let it go. At 5am, Mommy woke up again with Kaylani. She took her, changed her, nursed her, and also thought she felt a little warm, but she too let it go. At 7am, it was a little odd for Kaylani to wake up every 2 hours, but since she was responsive and playing with her toes when Daddy was changing her, again he thought nothing of it. It wasn't until 9am that the thermometer came out.

At 9am, Kaylani still felt warm. Daddy had finished changing her diaper again, but this time, he decided to take her temperature and wasn't happy with what it was. It read 102.9, which was way too high for his little girl (or any little girl for that matter)! Next came the call to the pediatrician, followed by the longest 15 minutes ever. Waiting for the off-hour call back and holding his sad, sick little girl was almost too much. Much pacing was done, and lots of hugging and kissing (more so then usual).

The pediatrician said it sounded like a normal virus passing through, and nothing more than Infants' Tylenol every 4 hours would be needed. By 11:30, Kaylani's temperature had lowered to 101.9 which was progress. And after a 3 hour nap, her temperature was down to 101.4. Another dose of Tylenol at 2:30pm, and by 3:30, her tempeature was much better at 100.9. By 5:30, her temperature was back to 100.4 and Mommy and Daddy finally felt a little bit better.

Surviving Kaylani's first fever wasn't easy. We were worried until her temperature dropped, and then spent most of the day watching her nap (which was a good thing). We also kept thinking back to things that might have made her sick, wondering where we went wrong. Was it the bath 2 nights ago? Or did she get sick when we were running errands yesterday out in the cold? Or maybe her room is too cold at night? But in the end, we made the right decision and told ourselves that babies get sick, and that was it. We didn't do anything wrong.

So it's now 8pm and she just had a nice relaxing lukewarm bath which we hope will get rid of the fever for good. Her temperature is 100.6 right now and she's not due for another dose of Infants' Tylenol until 10:30pm, but hopefully she'll be asleep and won't need it until a few hours after that. We're not out of the woods yet, but so far, looks like we've survived Kaylani's first fever.

Since today's picture is so sad, I had to post other happier pictures from the last couple of days. Take a look and see what she's like with a smile on her face instead of watery, sad eyes. And to show the power of Infants' Tylenol, there's even pictures of her smiling from today. Hope she's smiling tonight and into tomorrow for us too...