Since last Thursday our poor little Lily has been sick with a nasty, nasty cold! During the day Thursday Lily was uncharacteristically fussy. I really thought it was as a result of the 7 mosquito bites she had gotten the night before. By the way, the 7 bites turned into 5 bites...when 3 of the bites on her leg morphed into one HUGE bite bigger than the size of a quarter!
As the day progressed Thursday Lily became fussier and fussier. By the time evening came around she started feeling a little warm and when Tony got home she felt hot. I tried several times to take Lily's temperature with an "ear thermometer" and kept getting different results....99, 104, 100, etc. I then tried the thermometer on myself and got a reading of 103.7. Now granted I had a cold but there was no way that was my temperature! Without a whole lot of options I switched from the ear thermometer to the "rear thermometer". Lily was quite unhappy with that decision and Tony and I were really unhappy to see a temperature of 102.6! Right away I made my first (of I'm sure many) after hours phone calls to our pediatrician. She was great and had us start Lily on Infant Tylenol immediately. We gave Lily a dose and her fever broke within a few hours. Our doctor also mentioned that "ear thermometers" are notoriously unreliable and not to use them. Who knew?
Friday was more of the same. Lily was not at all herself. Very fussy, very clingy, really just in a misery but no temperature. Then the sun went down and Lily's temperature went up. Once again Tony and I gave Lily Infant Tylenol and that seemed to help. Saturday I called the pediatrician again even though Lily continued to not run a temperature during the day. The doctor gave me the "Rah, Rah, Fever is our Friend" speech. Honestly, the doctor was very nice and was trying to reassure me that this was just Lily's body trying to fight off whatever bug was trying to move in and that it was great to see her immune system kicking in.
Saturday night into Sunday morning was just awful. Lily coughed the entire night. We had bought some Infant Tylenol Cough and Cold for our trip to China and thought we would switch from regular Infant Tylenol to that.
The way Lily comforts herself is to suck on her index finger. However, when your nose is stuffed up and you try to suck on your finger the two don't mix....kind of like Merlot and Martinis. Oh wait, that's a story for another time! Seriously though, Lily would try to suck on her finger and then not be able to breathe and would wake up gasping for air and then drift back to sleep and slip her finger in her mouth and repeat the cycle again.
Our pediatrician does not have Sunday hours and will refer you to the ER if your child needs to be seen. Tony and I did not feel that Lily was sick enough to go to the hospital so we kept up with the Infant Tylenol Cough and Cold and longed for Monday morning. As soon as the pediatrician's office opened on Monday I was on the phone. Our regular doctor could not see Lily until 3:00 Monday afternoon but one of her associates had a cancellation at 10:30. I jumped on that.
We went to the doctor and were relieved to find out that Lily's ears, throat, lungs, and sinuses were infection free. She just had a nasty cold that her body was trying to fight. I told the doctor that we had switched from Infant Tylenol to Infant Tylenol Cough and Cold. She quickly told me that was the wrong thing to do. Yikes! She explained that the cough and cold medicine contained a decongestant that would loosen up all the mucus in Lily's head and start it draining. At Lily's age she is too young to blow her nose or clear her throat. So, what Lily really needed was something to dry it up not loosen it. Again, who knew? We have so much to learn!
The doctor recommended that we switch back to regular Infant Tylenol and Children's Benadryl. The doctor warned us that the Bendadryl might make Lily either very sleepy or very hyper. It didn't appear to do either but it definitely did start to dry things up.
Look Mom and Dad....No Hands!
During the last week poor Lily was so stuffed up she did not want to eat or drink a thing. Lily and I spent so much time in a steamy bathroom I think we’ve started to grow moss and the only way the poor sweet thing could sleep is if I kept her body pretty much upright. Finally yesterday we started to see shades of the healthy, happy Lily again and today I would say she is at about 90%. It's so great to see her sweet smile and to hear her constant chatter. She still has a bit of a cough but the doctor said that will take some time to go away completely.
3 comments:
oh girl, get used to it! quinn's had so many colds i've lost count. a couple of fevers up to 102.7, too. we've never taken her in to the doctor for a fever yet (thankfully!)... they've always just broken with tylenol. wait till she gets the flu and pukes all over you and anything else in her way! or the rear-end bug is a blast, too... thanfully i can't smell, so it never bothers me, but john has gagged more than once (this morning, as a matter of fact!)
parenting is not always fun, that's for sure!
congratulations on making it through your first "sick" time. It is so hard to see your babies miserable - but we all go through it. You've got one under your belt.
Glad to hear Lily is getting back to her happy self.
Janis
Poor little Lily, hate to hear of her sick and suffering. Of course, Mom and Dad suffer, too, whenever the little ones are sick. Glad to hear she's on the mend.
Love,
Eileen
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