I try as much not to overly share the most minute family glitches through this blog. There are many venues for that and this blog isn’t one of them.
So please bare with me for me for the next few minutes as I do what most mums do when confronted with an illness in the family: spilling the beans to a hapless audience.
For three days now, my daughter has been spiking a fever. Every four hours I give her Paracetamol round-the-clock, as five minutes late meant another feverish episode. Several pinpoint rashes also began appearing above her lip simultaneously with the fever. These all turned up two days after she had her first measles shot last Saturday – several days earlier than the average 7 to 12-day reaction time.
The first day was a breeze. Her temp didn’t go beyond 38°C . Hyperactive and with a ravenous appetite as usual, we thought she was gonna be fine the following day.
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| Day 1: Feverish and yet she still manages to make funny faces. |
But yesterday found her vomiting a meal and throwing terrible tantrums, a result of consistent fever episodes that go up to 38.6°C. While this is her first fever since birth, I try not to panic. Between the two of us, that’s my husband’s job. As the one who has a health care background, my job is to stay calm and to focus on resolutions.
Her moody temperament lasted the entire day, peaking for the duration of the night. Dawn was the most challenging. Twice she woke up and on both times she was burning up. She was flailing and kicking like crazy, screaming without abandon, ruffling her hair like a madman. For a 10-month old, she could get pretty feisty most of the time, but this is waaay more than feisty. She is desperate.
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| Day 2: Still eating fine, but quite somber than usual. |
My first instinct is to offer the breast. She’s never able to go back to sleep without nursing. That has been our routine since she was born. She wakes up 5-7 times a night, latches on and off the breast. It always works. Whenever she’d go into one of her mini-psycho fits, I give her the boob, and within five minutes, tada! A 360 degree alteration in mood. Pure magic.
But last night, she forcefully refused the breast. Twice. That has NEVER happened before, and although I tried to help it, for a minute there, the mom in me was disheartened.
With sleepy steps, I picked her up and began rocking her. She fought like mad but it had to be done. Overwhelmed by fatigue, lack of sleep, article backlogs that don’t seem to end and pity for the little one, I broke down. A tear – that was all I could spare. Because I would have to collect myself so I can take care of the more important person in the room. And well, because I don’t have the extra hand to wipe the tears away.
Today, we start over again and hope for better days for the bub.
How about you, moms? How was your first baby fever experience? What measures did you take?
P.S. If you know my in-laws, please don’t tell them. We don’t need the additional paranoia. Hehe.
Despite the medical background we have still it is difficult if it is your little one. I had the same experience a month ago with my little girl and pedia said it's viral (roseola infantum). Hopefully it would go away soon. Get well soon little Lia.
Dear, same here! Lia's last fever episode was kaninang madaling araw. Then today totally wala and flat rashes appeared all over her body at mukha. Pedia saya roseola infantum also. But we're happy because the fever subsided na.
True, kahit may medical background talaga when it's family, parang you get lost ano? Thanks dear 🙂
Malapit na yan mawala. Ewan ko ba kase sa virus na yan at madaling araw mataas ang lagnat nakakaloka hindi ka tuloy makatulog ng maayos.
Ur welcome. 🙂
Onga eh, sa madaling araw din at gabi ang pinakamataas ni Lia na lagnat. Pare-pareho kami puyat lagi hehe.
Awww… big hugs to you sis… I don't know about roseola infantum, but at least it's not dengue. But a fever is still a fever that keeps us moms worrying for our little ones. Yesha had a fever too last week, and good thing it only lasted for a day and did not return. Hope Lia gets better soon, what a beautiful baby she is.
I don't want my in laws fussing over too, it doesn't help.
Summer was a difficult baby, she was all the more difficult when she's uncomfortable or worst had a fever. She wouldn't stop crying. To make matters even worst than they already were, the crying would trigger her asthma. At that time, prior to having the babyhaler, trips to the hospital were really inevitable.
When my LB had her first fever due to her vaccinations, we were up the whole night to see if she's still breathing or what. Because she's not her typical kulit self. She was so behaved. But I just followed what the Pedia said and she went well. 🙂