SICK

Well, after a week of wondering what was "up" with my slightly-more-clingy-and-tired-than-usual-but-otherwise-symptom-free child, I found out today.

Last night Eric and I went out for his birthday (We ate at a Japanese restaraunt and then saw Up, which was fantastic!), leaving Eli with my mom for the evening. When we dropped him off, he was happy and healthy. When I picked him up out of the pack-n-play late that night, he was burning up with fever. We took him home and took his temperature, and, sure enough, it was 103 degrees! We tried to get him to drink lots of water and gave him some tylenol, and it came down to a more bearable number after a while. I slept for a couple hours and then woke up again to give him more tylenol, and he didn't sleep very well from then on. The poor guy was (is!) just plain miserable.

I had hoped that our pediatrician, who is "open most Saturday mornings" would be open this Saturday morning, and I felt fine taking Eli there by myself like I usually do. So Eric left for his 100k cycling race, and I waited for the pediatrician to open so I could call for an appointment. Of course, this is one of the few Saturdays that they were closed. :( So that meant PrimaCare (local urgent care center, one step down from the ER), which scares the heck out of me: doctors I don't know doing things that they don't explain to my sick and screaming baby. I called my mom and begged her to come with me, and she very sweetly obliged. She used to work at PrimaCare as a nurse, so she knows the staff there and can get us the "royal treatment"- what a perk!

So, two and a half hours, 4 chest x-rays, one blood draw, one thorough examination, one dose of baby motrin, and one shot of antibiotics later, we found out that Eli has double ear infections, strep throat, and a slight pneumonia in his right lung. I feel terrible for him- my poor, sick baby.

We've been giving him tylenol and motrin to keep his fever down and have a prescription ready to start tonight, so hopefully he'll start to feel better soon. In the meantime, I'll be holding my poor sick baby as much as he wants and praying for some relief for his poor body.

A good thing that came out of this is that now we know why Eli didn't want to eat this week! I was so frustrated and discouraged, but now I know that there was a reason behind it. So hopefully once he starts to feel better, he'll start eating more too. That's what I'm praying for.

And never again will I doubt my mother's intuition. I knew since Monday that there was something "off" with Eli, but since he was acting fine and didn't have any symptoms, I didn't say anything or take him to the doctor. Next time I'll trust myself a little more and take him to the doctor sooner.

Eli is sleeping away in his crib, and Eric is laying here on the floor in the office fast asleep, too. (I guess 100k on a bike is slightly tiring.) I hope that the rest of our weekend is restful and restorative for all of us.