By Mommy

We were hoping to be the first parents ever to have their child go to daycare and not get sick.  Sadly, that wasn’t the case, and it happened on his first full day there.  Saturday night as we were putting Rowan to bed, he seemed a little warm and stuffy.  So Mommy and Daddy took him in the bathroom and ran the hot water until the steam cleared up his little boogers.  And for the second time ever Mommy slept on the floor next to his crib, just to keep an eye on him.

He tossed about in bed a lot, even while sleeping, so after an hour of listening to this, mommy got up to feel his forehead, and that was enough to stop his kicking around.  He was sleeping more or less soundly, so she lay down to go to sleep, but after a while the quiet made her nervous so she got up and checked his forehead again, and this time it was really hot, 101.6.  So she called the doctor at 2am and was told to give him advil or tylenol and that it was okay if his temp was up to 102 or 103.

So some tylenol and back to bed, and when she and Daddy woke up, his temp was now 102.4.  So they made an appt with the doctor on duty that Sunday, and he checked out fine — lungs, throat and ear all clear, and his office temp was 100.8.  This time they tried giving him infant advil, which worked much better.  Rowan wasn’t lethargic, but he was definitely uninterested in what was going on around him.  Even his favorite toy he just took into hand and held onto.  But at least he wasn’t as hot as that morning.

Luckily Mommy and Daddy are finally getting the hang of some of this parenting stuff.  We discovered that even if your baby won’t take a bottle anymore, you can still give them the same formula through a bowl and spoon without complaint.  But do you have any idea how many baby spoonfuls are in just one ounce of fluid?!  It’s a good thing Rowan is our son otherwise I’m not sure either of us would have had the patience to go through that.

And Mommy and Daddy made sure he had some good giggles before going to bed that night.

The following day Mommy stayed home from work to take care of him.  He felt warm in the morning but was very cheerful and smiling.  Very very cheerful.  He took his morning nap earlier than usual, but when Mommy went to get him when he woke up, he was really hot, and up to 102.4 again.  So another call to the doctor who said not to worry unless it’s still that way on Wednesday.  We will worry.

But Rowan is an incredibly happy baby (except when you don’t let him play with your cellphone).  Most of today he spent on his back, either sleeping or on a mat in the living room, but for most of that time he was chatting away at the crib wall or with mommy or whichever hand was nearest.  Generally Rowan is not the clingy touchy feely type, but both yesterday and today he never protested to being held and several times fell asleep in mommy’s arms.  In fact, that was the only way he would sleep last night, and it took several attempts to get him into the crib without upsetting him.

But the exciting news — he’s picking up a bunch of new sounds!  And very suddenly too.  He pays close attention to your lips when you talk, and if you use a new word he will stare really hard at you.  In fact, we spent most of today chatting with each other.  I would never have guessed he was so sick.