A Day of Firsts

While my husband was getting the hang of things at his first day of work, I was re-learning my job as a stay-at-home-mommy-without-any-help-from-daddy :) Of all days to go it alone, yesterday wouldn't have been my first choice...


Claire woke up with a fever. From the moment I picked her up from her crib, her smile was noticeably missing. A smileless Claire is a rare sight, especially first thing in the morning. She was quite warm as I changed her, so I left her in a onesie and gave her Tylenol. After popping three teeth in three weeks, I figured another was on the way. She started broccoli yesterday morning and (surprisingly!) didn't fight it--something had to be wrong...

She was cranky for the better part of an hour, so I put her down for a nap. By the time she woke up from her nap, it became very clear that she wasn't feeling any better. She cried most of the time that Andy and I spent planting our seeds in egg cartons, and calmed down a bit when I held her. At about 11:00, I felt her start to shiver. I thought she might be cold, so I held her close and watched her closer. Her shivers turned into all-out shakes and I got really worried. I scheduled an afternoon appointment at the pediatrician's office. By the time I hung up with the Triage nurse, she was shaking, the color in her face was draining, and her hands were starting to turn purple. I called the Triage nurse back and told her the developments and asked if I should take her to the ER... Yep...

I was frantically zig-zagging across the house grabbing jackets, snacks, toys for each kid, and all of my FPIES material. We were out the door in under 10, and Claire was still pale and shaking. We got to the ER in 5 minutes, at which time Claire's color started coming back and the shaking had subsided. There was a split second when I thought about turning for home, but my gut said, "stay", so that's what we did. The nurses took Claire's medical history and her vitals and a sample of her urine. That baby girl is tough as nails--even as they inserted a catheter. Andy sat on the other side of the room and said, "It's awight Cwaiwy..."

After three hours of reading the same book repeatedly, playing cars, and keeping Andy as far away as possible from all plugs, computers, buttons, and Bio hazard waste cans, we saw the doctor. During our wait, Claire had recovered from all previous symptoms and a quick exam revealed nothing of concern. I felt like an idiot. I was about to acknowledge that my fear of another "episode" landed Clairey in the ER for teething pain, when the doctor returned with some preliminary results from her urine sample. Clairey has a bladder infection. I guess my motherly instincts can be trusted after all :)

As we were waiting for Claire's antibiotic prescription to be filled, I treated Andy (for the first time since September!) to a hamburger and apple slices from McDonald's for being an angel at the hospital. If Claire could drink it, I would have given her a super-sized milkshake. Instead, she got a bottle of antibiotics and her first taste of broccoli. She deserves pears for dessert :)