The First Illness

Over the past labor day weekend, Colby experienced his first fever.  It started Saturday morning, hovering around 99-100, and he was one cranky baby.  I thought he might actually be teething, so we didn't worry about it too much.  We even took him to the neighborhood pool for the first time, which he actually seemed to like.  After an initial wail from the first full body dunk, he began splashing and kicking like a champ.  

But the next day, his fever was more around 101, and he was lethargic and just wanted to be held all day long.  Then Monday rolled around, same story, and Robert and I (spoiled by the normally good nature of our baby) were pretty tired of the neediness.  We discussed taking him to the doctor, but thought they would just tell us he was teething, or that he had a virus, and there wasn't anything we could do about it, other than control the fever with ibuprofen (which we'd been doing).

On Tuesday, I went back to work, and early in the morning checked my pediatrician's webpage which said to call them about any fever over 101.  Colby had been hanging around 102 yesterday, so Robert called and made an appointment for that afternoon - our first doctor's appointment that wasn't a check up!  We also found out that our doctor does not believe that teething causes fever.  About an hour before we went to the doctor's office, Colby's fever spiked to 103, so I'm glad we made the appointment.  Of course, when we saw the doctor, the ibuprofen was working.  He told us what we thought we'd hear: virus.  But we did get a proper dosage schedule for ibuprofen, and realized that while we'd been controlling the fever, we'd been giving him less than half the recommended dosage!  We also found out that at eight months, Colby weighs a whopping 18 lbs 5 oz!  And for a $20 co-pay, the piece of mind that our son, though sick, is fine, was worth it.  No teeth yet, but as of Wednesday, Colby is much, much better - our doctor knows what he's talking about. And we can say we survived our baby's first illness!

 

Here is Colby - the one time he wasn't fussy while he was sick. 

Don't worry, you can't see it, but I'm holding onto him in the back!