Day 75: First Fever

My poor baby has a fever...

She woke up last night at 4 AM, which is very unusual for her (she's been sleeping through the night since November).  I brought her into bed with me and nursed her for 45 minutes, and when I undressed her to change her diaper, I noticed she was warm.  She was almost asleep, though, so Ben put her back in the crib.  She never really fell asleep - she was laying in the crib talking to herself, making noise and softly crying for about 10 minutes, and Ben went back in to get her.  He noticed she was even warmer at that point, so we undressed her and I took her rectal temperature.  It was 101.4 degrees!  I called the pediatrician, because we were told that a fever in a baby is very serious.  The nurse on call told me that Abby needed to be seen first thing in the morning when the office opened up, and in the meantime I should give her Tylenol and wet her with warm washcloths and let her air dry to pull some of the heat out of her body.  I stripped her down to a diaper, wet her skin, and laid with her in the bed in her room, nursing on and off from 5:30 until 7:30 in the morning.  By that time, her fever had gone down to 100.4.

I brought her to the pediatrician at 9:15, and they couldn't find anything wrong with her.  Her fever had gone back up over 101, but her ears and chest were clear.  The pediatrician said to keep an eye on her and see if she seems to get worse (because she was acting her normal, happy self, albeit a little bit clingier than usual).

She took two huge naps the rest of the day... I wasn't sure how to dress her because she's usually in the Magic Sleepsuit which is really warm.  So I first tried putting her down in just a diaper...

...but she wouldn't fall asleep.  Then I put her in the Sleepsuit without her clothes on, and kept the front open so her body wouldn't overheat... that did the trick!

She was fine the rest of the day, playing and cuddling and eating really well.  She's upstairs playing with her Daddy right now, blabbing away.  Hopefully her fever goes down overnight and she'll be back to her cool self in the morning!!!