First Teeth/First Virus

Sweet Pea,

You got your first tooth! Well, actually, you got your first THREE teeth - all in one week. And what a week it was, especially because you got your first virus the same week! It was a rough one for all of us and left me feeling a bit frazzled about my mommy skills. I have a feeling I'll be getting better at this because everyone says kids get sick a lot the first few years, but I really don't like it when you're not feeling well and I can't figure out how to make you feel better. Anyway, the week was traumatic enough for me that I needed to write it all down so here's a rundown of the fun:

I noticed your cute little tooth - your top left one - poking through on Sunday morning (July 27th) and I was so excited that you were finally getting some teeth! That evening you were pretty fussy so we took you to the park to swing thinking this would make you happy. But you really had no interest and just wanted me to hold you - which should have been my first clue that something was off. I thought you might feel a bit warm, but couldn't really tell (your cheeks were okay, but your trunk felt hot). I figured you might have a bit of a fever and be feeling fussy from teething so we put you to bed a little earlier than normal. When we put you in your crib you didn't make a sound and then you didn't even roll over to watch us leave your room like you usually do. Papa said "she seems relieved to be going to bed." Again, I chalked it up to teething.

But then when I went in for your 10:30p feeding you were burning up. Your little hands were on fire. And you seemed listless. It was so sad. We gave you some Tylenol and then I brought you to bed with us so I could keep an eye on you. You couldn't figure out what you were doing in our bed. You would kind of lift your head up, look at me quizzically and then plop your head back down. Then you'd lift it again, look at Papa, plop it down again. I really wanted you to sleep with us but it didn't seem like it was going to happen, so Papa got up and put together the Pak-n-play in our room. I thought this might work, but then I think the Tylenol kicked in and you started to feel better and then you were VERY awake. Basically from that point until 4am you and I moved back and forth between your room and my room trying everything to get you to sleep. Papa slept on the floor of the office in his sleeping bag with earplugs because he had to go to work in the morning. I was happy to sit in the rocking chair all night and let you sleep on me if you wanted, but you just wouldn't go to sleep even though you were clearly very tired and wanted to sleep. Eventually I put you in your crib and went back to my room alone. You cried and it broke my heart. But I knew you needed to sleep and unfortunately (well, most of the time it is a "fortunately" but in some circumstances it is an "unfortunately") we've trained you to fall asleep on your own in your crib and you don't seem to be able to fall asleep in any other circumstance. If you know I'm around you think it is awake/play time no matter how tired you are.

Anyway, you eventually fell asleep, but then had a fever on and off for the next three or four days and continued to be very fussy. You would be especially fussy with me which was hard, because as your mom I wanted to be able comfort you. I didn't understand why you'd be mostly okay with Grandma or Papa or Amy and then get so upset whenever you saw me. Grandma told me it was because you felt comfortable with me so you could really let your guard down. I wasn't sure what was going on: if it was teething or if maybe you were starting to go through some kind of separation anxiety (which apparently is common at your age) or if you were overwhelmed by the constant stream of company we'd had for two weeks or if maybe you had picked up some bug. I talked to the nurse at Dr. M's office on Tuesday who assured me that babies can get fever when teething so I decided to just ride it out for a few days rather than drag you into the docs office. Then on Thursday night you developed a rash. I called the after hours on-call nurse who said it could be a food reaction (I had given you formula for the first time that evening thinking that maybe you were fussing because you were starving and my milk supply was low) or that since you'd had a fever during the week the rash could be viral. Friday I couldn't stand not knowing what was going on any longer so we took you to Dr. M who took one look at your rash and said "Oh yea, that is from a virus." Apparently there is some fever/rash virus going around that causes a really bad headache and sore throat.

I felt so bad for not figuring out sooner that you really were sick - what kind of mother doesn't know when her kid is sick? Seriously. Grandma tried to make me feel better by pointing out that you were probably feeling bad from everything all together - illness, teething, company, separation anxiety - and that I wouldn't have done anything differently anyway. But still, I'd like to think that I'd be able to differentiate between teething and illness. Next time, Sweet Pea, I promise to be more on it.

Anyway, you were doing much better by the next Sunday thankfully and now things are back to normal. Your next two teeth (bottom right and top right) started poking through soon after and you really didn't seem bothered by them at all. I'm just so happy that you're feeling better and back to your normal, happy, content self. I hate getting sick more than almost anyone I know, but hands down I would rather get sick myself any day of the week than have you get sick. I guess I'll have to get used to it over time, but I'm not going to like it!