Bad News

It's been a while since I last wrote, but a lot has been going on. I'll just jump right into the update. Vacation time off has finally begun for Dowell, so he has had a lot more time at the house (let me mention that "vacation time" for him means that he still goes to work, just doesn't stay as long). Thank goodness that he has been here. On Friday afternoon, we noticed that Reese's head and body felt a little warm. She was a bit fussy going to bed that night and we thought that her teeth were bothering her. The next morning, she still felt warm, so I took her temperature and it was 100.7 degrees. I gave her some Tylenol and we tried to have her take it easy. Well, as the day went on, she became increasingly feverish and I just kept giving her Tylenol, putting cold packs on her head, keeping her covered, and cuddling her as much as I could. She felt so bad. She couldn't nap and was SO tired. That night, her temperature was 101.5 and she was having a lot of trouble going to sleep. I was so worried. She finally went to sleep around 9 which is very late for her. She woke up at 2 and didn't go back to sleep until after 4 am. Sunday morning, her temperature was 102.7 (axillary temp) and I could tell that she felt lousy. She was up at 6 am...not much sleep for us. I was absolutely exhausted and running on less than 4 hours of sleep. Dowell got up and took care of her for a few hours so that I could get a little more rest. Around 10 a.m., we tried to put her down for a nap, but Reese wasn't having any of it. She felt crummy. I was so worried about her fever. Luckily, our pediatrician's office is open for 2 hours on Sundays for acute illnessses. When I read that the axillary temperature is actually 1-2 degrees lower than actual temperature, I looked at Dowell and said, "we are taking her to the doctor right now." I'm so glad that we did because it gave us both peace of mind. Dr. Ladd assured us that she would be fine and checked all of her systems. He told us that it was probably a virus and just had to run it's course. We got her some popsicles and Motrin. Monday morning, her fever was down and she seemed to be feeling a little better. She likes popsicles.