Immune System, Where are You?

I left off at the end of yesterday's novel of a post at the torture inducing, germ infested, children's jump, bounce and indoor playground.  Last time we went, my party favor was strep throat.

This time... on that cold and dreary Sunday afternoon, I was armed with even more sanitizer and followed very closely behind her the entire time.  She isn't old enough to be embarrassed by me... yet... so at least I wasn't cramping her style.  But I was determined to not bring a single friendly germ home with us.  Not one.  

And I thought we may have accomplished my mission.  Until Wednesday morning.  She has been waking up super early this week as a result of the time change. Typically she is still asleep when I leave for work but this week she has been waking up before I sneak out.  Which ruins the morning for all  involved.  So when I lifted her out her bed that morning she clung to me like I was trying to sit her on an erupting volcano instead of the changing table in her bedroom.  (Yes.  Still in crib.  Still in diapers.) I noticed immediately how warm she felt but thought maybe she was just dressed too warmly (remember she is in a shirt, pants AND nightgown) and the whining was simply because she didn't want me to leave for work.  

Around 9:00am I saw our sitter's cell phone number pop up on my phone.  My heart dropped thinking worst case scenario. Shirley doesn't just call for no reason.  In fact in the 17 months (wow! 17 months!) she has been watching Brianna I can probably count on one hand how many times she has called me while I am at work.  Thankfully, Shirley was calling to ask if she could give her some medicine because she definitely had a fever. I will take a fever over the other scenarios running through my head any day, any time.   I told her the dosage and asked that she call me back if it doesn't seem to come down.  Last night was a long night with a pitiful little girl.  I kept trying to figure out what was bothering her (throat, belly, ears, etc...) and she couldn't really tell me.  I gave her some medicine around 5:00am Thursday morning when she woke up absolutely burning up and by the time I was leaving for work she started to perk up a bit. I had back to back meetings scheduled until 3:30 or so but asked that she call me if she seemed to be getting worse or the fever wasn't coming down.  

I called around 11:30 to check in so that I could decide if I needed to take her in to the doctor or just cross my fingers it is something viral that moves through quickly.  Shirley said that she seemed to be feeling a little better but since the evening before I had been alternating Tylenol and Advil.  Apparently the medicine was helping so I felt comfortable finishing out my work day.  Grandma Peggy came over in the afternoon so she was with Brianna when I got home.  Bri's little voice wasn't sounding too great and she felt warm to me.  She did eat a little (she hasn't eaten much in the past few days) and had lots of water and Gatorade.  Peggy helped me make the executive decision to wait until Friday morning, see how she is doing then and schedule a sick visit if the nurse feels she should be seen. 

The more time passed the worse she seemed to get.  She would randomly scream out... usually when she was trying to eat something.  She says her mouth is burning but I think she means her throat.  Around 2:00am she started crying and I couldn't get her to calm down.  I made a big bed in the middle of the living room floor and was going to lay down with her so we could cuddle.  I let her bring as many of her animals out that she wanted so that got her to calm down for a couple minutes.  After getting settled she screamed out in pain again.  At approximately 3:00am I was THAT mother that did something I would have never thought I would ever do.

That is a picture of nutritious midnight snack.  Except it is 3:00am and there is nothing nutritious about a grape Popsicle.  She also happens to be watching her third episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  

At this point... I'm willing to do anything to just make it through the night.  I'm not sure there is a worse feeling in the world than your little baby is screaming in pain and there doesn't seem to be anything I will be calling the doctor's office first thing in the morning.

And now I feel it is safe to say that even without the diagnosis from the doctor... I will never go back to Jumping Jacks.  

And one more funny side note... when I was younger my family always jokingly called me "Typhoid Tammi" because whenever there was a sickness or illness going around I would always catch it.  Always.  My co-workers know that was a nickname of mine so today they were giving me a hard time about Brianna getting whatever goes around just like her Mama.  So they began trying to come up with an equally funny nickname for her.  At work, my daughter is now lovingly referred to as "Bacteria Bri".  Mommy's sorry, baby.  :)

So I guess we shall see by tomorrow afternoon if Brianna's party favor from this party is strep throat as well.