Speckled Baby on Rye

I'm not really sure why I put "on rye" only that it sounded appropriate, as speckled baby sounds like a gourmet pate of sorts. (Look, I've been taking care of a sick child all day, cut me some slack on the crazy!)

Yesterday, about 10 minutes till 4, I got a phone call at work from K.T.'s daycare. Of course, I immediately panicked (did she crack her head, is she vomiting uncontrollably, is her head spinning?!? what ?!). Fortunately, it was none of those things. Unfortunately, she was sick. In fact, has-a-101.4-degree-fever sick. And, oh yeah, a rash to boot. My thoughts, rash, smash, what about this fever business?! She's never had a fever before, how do I handle that, what can I take, running left, running right, smacks head on door frame, passes out. Well it didn't quite go like that, but close. I whisked up my work laptop, called the pediatrician, left a message and sped to the daycare. Ahhh, she's alive. And smiling, of course. With speckles. All over her. Kinda cute, in a as-cute-as-she-can-be-when-she's-sick type of way.

So the daycare rattled of their list of must haves before she can come back. No fever w/o medication for over 24hours (yeah, i'm out of work thursday AND friday). She can come back with the rash, but only if she has a pediatrician's note (no worries, the appt is scheduled already). My favorite part? There was a checkmark next to the type of medication they gave her. It was "Hugs". *too cute*

So we got home, she felt warm and as usual during our 5 minute commute, she had passed out. After a 5 minute snooze, she was hungry. Good sign. An appetite. I fed her and the poor baby went back to bed at 5:30pm. We woke her at 10pm so we could a. make sure she was still breathing b. check her temperature (no fever) and c. feed her again so she could make it through the night. And she did. In fact, she zonked till 7am this morning.

9:45 - pediatrician's visit. More like me sitting in the waiting room for 45 minutes. I guess that's how it goes when you are scheduled within less than 24hours. You wait.

10:30, saw the pedi. Aha! Immediately she says, "this is *insert something i can't pronounce*, a form of Coxsackie Virus. Does she have any sores in her mouth?" In my head "umm, right...cause that's the first thing I would think about...no." So she checks and nothing (thank goodness). No loss of appetite? negative. No fussiness? not really. Fever? yes, but not anymore. Things look good, may be small strain. Except this rash business. Now that the fever is gone, I'm honing in on that. Doctor says, nothing we can do about it, it'll go away... in 7-10 days. *sigh* Poor K.T. But she's so cute, she'll rock these speckles in her favor.

She did good for the rest of the day. Minor fussiness. She's been pretty tired. I'm pretty tired too. Tomorrow, I'm home with her again, but I need to get some work in too. Let's just see how it goes.

speckled baby