FEVER

At the end of April Raymond got his first cold on the way back from California I was shocked and thought that somehow my breast milk was failing as all the literature makes it sound like if you breast feed your baby will never get sick.  Then I blamed myself for being distracted and not covering the entire plane in hand sanitizer on the way home.  Even though the cold lasted over a week, he never had a fever, just a cough that broke my heart!  The cold ran its course and our little man recovered nicely.

Then came the first fever in May.  I noticed about mid day that he was feeling a little warm, but I didn't really trust myself to be sure.  Since having Raymond and due to breast feeding my body temperature is way higher than it used to be.  But at dinner that night cousin Drew was holding Raymond during dinner and also noticed that Raymond was very warm.  We immediately took his temperature in his armpit and it was 103.5 degrees.  We then followed it up by taking the rectal temperature as the armpit reading was so high and it was over 105 degrees.   I was terrified!  That sounds so incredibly high! My gut reaction was to RUN to the ER - which of course would be the worst thing I could possibly do to Raymond -

Luckily Drew is a veteran dad and was able to be very helpful and responsive.  While Morgan was calling the nurse line for the pediatrician Drew called Carol, our family baby nurse, and she calmed me down.  The most important part of what she said being that as long as I trust Raymond's doctor we were going to be fine.  The nurse on call advised to make sure he was getting plenty of fluids, give him generic Tylenol (not to use the name brand as it was very close to the recall), strip him down to minimal clothes and go to the doctor in the morning.  She said if it did not go down or peaked close to 107 degrees to call back.  This whole time I am thinking 107!  Are you kidding!  Won't that kill someone!  But my mom reminded me that baby's get really high temperatures and it is okay.  We followed the nurses' advise and Raymond's temperature dropped down - although I couldn't get it below 100 all night. 

This particular night we were having a nice meal and Morgan was planning on bottle feeding Raymond so I could enjoy some wine.  I was about 2 1/2 glasses in when we realized he had a fever!  The most important thing you can do is to nurse and get the baby hydrated and I was totally blocked from being able to do that for a couple of hours.  I started pounding water while Morgan tried to give him the bottle.  Raymond was seriously resisting the bottle (as usual) and I felt terrible!

I was up most of the night and had Raymond in the doctor's office when it opened at 7:00 am for "walk-in" hours for sick children.  (Note: if you are looking for a pediatrician I highly recommend making sure the office has a good walk-in period for occasions like this.  It was awesome not to even have to call or worry, I could just GO!) After a full exam we learned that Raymond simply had a virus - a virus that needed to run its course. 

All of the baby health and prep books I read did not prepare me at all for the fear and worry that came with the first fever!  But I learned a lot.  Raymond has has two subsequent fevers since this experience.  One after his second round of shots - the day after the shots he just moaned and moaned and had a little fever. This is to be expected.  And again over the past two days he has been running slightly under 100 - also to be expected as he is teething.  I hate that he doesn't feel well but I am not experiencing the frantic worry or  personal blame that accompanied the first fever at all.  I am not even giving him Tylenol as it has not broken 100 and  I don't want to over medicate.  I am nursing like crazy but that is good for both of us.