First Fever

Over the past 7+ months, Nadia has slept through the night without making a peep 99% of the time. Not counting times when part of her night time sleep was in the car seat and also when we've put her to bed some place other than her own crib (such as a pack n' play), she has probably cried about 5 times total during the night and never more than once in any night. Well last night was a rough night - very different from any other night the past 9+ months. She woke up crying many times throughout the night. The first time I gave her some milk and put her back to bed. She cried quite a bit this time before going back to sleep. The next time I didn't go into her room, and she went back to sleep in less than 5 minutes. The 3rd time (2:30am or something like that) I gave her some Tylenol as I knew something wasn't right. She woke up for good around 5:40am, which is one hour earlier than usual. I have been very tired today. It was a good reminder of the sleep deprivation I am going to be experiencing again in five months.

The second clue that she wasn't feeling well was that her nose was running all the time. She has had one cold before (at 9 months), and that time when her nose was running she didn't try to wipe it herself. Boy what a mess it was today as especially after she'd sneeze she'd immediately put her hand in it and spread it all over her face (in her eyes, etc.). Gross. I kept telling her no touch, Mommy do it, etc., but I didn't have much success today unless I got to her within say 1 second of when she sneezed. The discharge was clear, which I know is the better way for it to be.

The third clue was that she didn't nap well. Lately her first nap has been about 90-100 minutes long, and her second nap has been about 80 minutes long on average. Today her first nap was about 40 minutes long, and her second nap was about 15 minutes. I tried letting her cry some with the 2nd nap, but that didn't work at all. Thankfully she did get some sleep later in the afternoon when Paul's parents were here watching her. She fell asleep in the swing outside, and they kept pushing her so she could take a nap in the swing.

I usually don't get home before Nadia goes to bed, but since I gave a multiple choice final exam tonight (tomorrow's is mostly essay questions), I got home a little before 7pm. When Paul handed her to me I could tell she had a fever. I went up and took her temp, and sure enough she had a fever a little over 100 degrees. This is the first time she's ever had a fever. I had given her Motrin at 10am, and I gave her some again at 7pm. I hope she sleeps better tonight. If she still has a fever tomorrow, I'll call the doctor in case she has an ear infection or something like that.

Paul's reaction was that we shouldn't have gone to MD this weekend. He's probably correct that she did catch whatever bug she has down there - either from a cousin or from someone in the church nursery. That's one advantage of going to a small church (the church I've been going to has less than 200 people). She's usually the only baby in the nursery. That certainly wasn't the case at the nursery at my parent's church this weekend. I wish she hadn't gotten sick, but honestly if we stay away from my family every time one of them has a runny nose, we'd likely never see them as usually at least one of the nieces or nephews are not feeling 100%. We knew it was a risk when we went down as Joshua has had a runny nose for several days and Jenna had a fever on Friday night. My first trip to see my sister in Chicago (Nov 2007), I came back with the stomach flu (something I hadn't had in more than 10 years), and the last time we were ALL together in MD (Dec 2007), both Paul and I got the respiratory bug that was going around. The list could go on. I am hoping that Nadia will be feeling better as soon as possible. It broke my heart to rock her to sleep and feel her little body burning up. I also hope everyone is healthy (if that's possible) when we get together for our family reunion in 10 days.