Fever

This post seems suddenly IRONIC after reading my previous post.

Wednesday morning around 4 a.m. Franki threw up after eating it was all milk, so at that point I just suspected that I didnt burp her well or she did not get her reflux medication soon enough. She woke up at 8 a.m to eat again and immediately threw up again a ton of milk. At this point in the morning she is usually all smiles and happy baby and is up until around 11. This particular morning was different she fell right back to sleep after throwing up. An hour later when I went to pick her up she started screaming and crying ( very unsual behavior for her) usually she only cries when it is time to eat and not even then does she alwasy cry. I took her temperature it was 99.8. So at this point I am casually concerned but not overly worried. I try to wake her up a bit to see if she would eat some more, but she continued to either cry or sleep (but even in her sleep she was moaning). I gave her another hour to sleep. At that point I was just sitting here starring at her watching her sleep. I checked her temp again and it was 100.1. I immediately called the Pediatrician to see if I could bring her in. She said that because she is so young with a fever I should bring her to the office have her checked out. I tried to feed her before leaving to go to the pediatrician but again she had no interest in feeding and just wanted me to rock her. By the time I got out stuff together to head out, she was breathing a little heavier and decided I was not comfortale driving 25 minutes by myslef to the pediatrician office, so instead I called the pediatrician and told her I was more comfortable taking her to the ER. Knowing that she was less than 60 days old, made her having a fever at higher risk than if she was already out of the 2 month period . We got the ER and we were seen almost immediately. The doctors agreed that she did look pretty lethargic and dehydrated. Her fever had increased by the time we had gotten to the ER to 100.8. She just looked so sad. She was pale with mottled skin and she was wimpering and making sad faces while she slept. I knew the drill since I work in the hospital. A fever in a newborn less than 60 days old is treated the same from hospital to hospital. They want to take blood, urine and spinal fluid from the patient in order to check for any bacterial infection. They have to rule out weather or not it is a viral vs. bacterial infection. As a bacterial infection is very dangeruous and is often a type of meningitis in the young infant. While viral is less severe and will work its way out of the body. I knew that these tests were all needed in order to treat Franki appropriately and quickly. This was were the going got rough. I have dont theses tests to babies thousands of times, but here is your little child, this precious little girl who means the world to me and I have to watch her get poked and proded. Infants are not easy to get blood on in general but usually after a few times someone will have a successful stick. Unfortunately Francesca was not that lucky. We had 6 differnet people try to get blood on her and 14 seperate pokes later we finally had enough blood to send the blood culture and complete blood count. I think that she cried more in 24 hours than she has in her entire 7 weeks of life. The piercing cry was so hard to listen to but I talked to her or sang to her the entire time so that she would know I was there and that I was going to pick her up immediately to console her. I spent most of the day holding back tears of my own. They then tried to get spinal fluid from her and what do you know again were unnsucessful .I had reached my breaking point at that point. No one else was going to touch her or stick her unless it was with an antibiotic injection and I wanted her to get tylenol to help with both the pain and her fever. All of the doctors were very respectful of my decision at that point and we went ahead and gave her the antibiotic. At that point we got into a new room that was not in the emergency room anymore. I think 7 hours in the ER was enough. We settled into our room and overnight she continued to have fevers. We continued to give her Tylenol and I cuddled with her all night. They actually said it was a good thing that she wanted to cuddle, because often kids with a bacterial infection are so sick and in pain that they would rather not be touched by anyone. She just wanted to nuzzle up to her momma, so that is what I have done for the last 36 hours or so. Her complete blood count was reassuring that she had a viral illness. (We thought this woudl be the case becasue the kid ellen was watching was sick and we didnt know it). The doctors knew that I work as a pediatric nurse practitioner and knew I would keep her fever down and watch her closely at home while the virus works its way out of her system. It is better to be at home than in a hospital there area less germs at home. We came home late yesterday afternoon. By the time we got home, Franki was already feeling much better. I was even getting a smile or two. She was making up for not eating by eating every 1-2 hours all night long. She is still wanting to be held but overall is doing so much better. She has kept her fever and milk down. I cant even begin to explain how scared I was. I dont know if Ill ever forget watching her go through all of that. I would have done anything to take all the pain away and give it to myslef. I love her more everyday. I literally spent the entire night in the hospital just staring at her thinking to myself how lucky I am to have such a precious gift. Im glad she wont remember any of this, I know that Tyler, Moma and myslelf will be hearing that sad little scream and picturing her sad little face for quite some time though. We all love her so so much it was unbearable to see her in any pain. Im just glad that she is doing so much better and on the mend. I love to see her smile and look around at her little world. As a matter a fact as I sit her right now she is snuggled perfectly against my belly just like when I was pregnant. I love to watch all the little faces she makes while she is sleeping. At least that happy little smile has returned, it just cracks me up when she is sound asleep with a huge grin! Must be dreaming up something good. I hope everyone in there lifetime gets to feel this much love from someone. I look at her and my whole life is complete. It feels so good to be a mom to this beautiful baby girl. We will be doing lots of cuddling in the next two weeks, becuase we will be hibernating until her immunizations are given on September 30th.

On a very funny side note, Hullk was so happy when we came home from the hospital. It was like for the first time he realized that Franki and I are a packaged deal. We walked in the door from the hospital and he couldnt get enough of us, he was licking her ears and her toes and he just wanted to be right next to her. He may not always act like he is happy she is around, but he definitely missed us while we were away.  I cant wait to see what he does when she starts crawling!

P.S. Did I mention what a great husband I have? He took one for the team and spent last night sleeping on the floor of our bedroom on an airmattress so that Franki and I could sleep in the bed. She would not sleep unless I had one hand on her butt (it was pretty funny) I would take my hand away and she would wine or cry. This might be the beggining of her little personality shining through. Either that or Hulk  has been teaching her tactics behind my back. Hulk usually growls at me if I am petting him and I take my hand away, but as soon as i put my hand back on him he will stop growling. They are both pretty stubborn! ( I wonder where they get that from? :))