This has been the worst weekend so far in my experience as a mother. All of you other mothers are probably thinking "just wait", but in my almost-five-months as a mom, this has been the worst experience I have had.
All of the baby books, baby websites and pediatricians will tell you that, at four months, your baby may start to teeth. My pediatrician said that it's a genetic trait whether or not she teeths early, so, based on my nephew, I thought I had MONTHS before I saw the first signs of O's pearly whites. When she slept through the night this past week (and I mean slept until 7 am, not this 5am-sleeping-through-the-night-for-babies sleeping through the night) I thought to myself, "well, this is going to all go out the window when she starts teething, so I better take advantage now." Little did I know how MUCH advantage I should have taken when the MONTHS I thought I had were actually days if not hours.
This past Friday started like any other day in new-mommyhood. Because it was Friday, I was ready to spend the whole day with my baby and not really do much in the way of chores because I felt like I needed a break and wanted to start my weekend off relaxed. So, I got both of us dressed and went to Babies R Us to get some window shades for John's car (among other things that you all of a sudden think you NEED when you are surrounded by baby stuff...I almost bought a bottle warmer (totally extravagant and unnecessary item) but I restrained myself, for this is not the economy to be extravagant). Then, I got home and realized that I didn't get a discount on an item they advertised as on sale and called to complain (another story for another day, needless to say, Babies R Us is now on my SH#$ list.) At some point after that, I went to pick up Olivia and noticed that she was crying in pain (ala just got a vaccine shot cry). Uh oh.
I made myself lunch and noticed that she was continuing to cry in pain when I picked her up. This is not normal! I have a perfect, happy baby who never complains... Then I went through all of the medical dramas that I had been watching and just started to think the worst. What if she has some bone disease?! (Yes, one goes to the extremes when it comes to their child) What if I held her wrong and she broke something?
So I called my dad hoping that, with his medical expertise, he could tell me what was wrong and that I don't need to worry. Instead, he told me to go right to the pediatrician. (holy crap). So, I got in my car and went to the pediatrician. Unfortunately, Olivia's pediatrician was not on staff on Friday so I actually saw my nephew's doctor. She poked and prodded Olivia. She held the stethoscope over Olivia's hands to see if she would reach for it (and, thank GOODness, she did). But she also was concerned at how Olivia would cry in pain when touched in certain places on her chest and arm. And, as an added bonus, Olivia was now not moving her left arm.
In all that examining, I noticed that Olivia's bottom teeth were coming in. Because, as we all know, when it rains, it pours. Now, I want to believe that the doctor actually was concerned that Olivia could have a fracture and was not taking advantage of a concerned new mom, so I will go with that (although in hindsight, I feel like we all overreacted in a major way). So, she sent me to radiology at the local hospital for Olivia to get x-rays. Now was time to panic. Apparently, babies can have fractures and not have any physical, visible symptoms.
John and my dad met me at the hospital as we waited for the results. The radiologist came out to talk to me and said that there was nothing on her x-rays and that she understood how difficult this must be because she was a new mom herself and it must be hard not to know what is wrong with your baby. A little ray of sunshine on what was beginning to be a thunderstorm of a day. So, I spoke with the pediatrician about the results and she told me to come in the next day if things continued.
As it turns out, Olivia's symptoms improved and I thought we were trending on recovery. (Still not knowing what was wrong with her) At 2am on Saturday, Olivia awoke, screaming in pain and she was hot to the touch and even more sensitive to being touched. A rectal thermometer reading later, she had a fever of 102.1. Now was the time to wake up whatever pediatrician was on call. This pediatrician turned out to be the same lady who examined Olivia in the hospital where she was born. (It all comes full circle). She told me to give her Tylenol every four hours until the fever went down.
I ended up "sleeping" with Olivia in the glider because she was just screaming in pain when I put her in the crib. "Poor little blighter" as John would say. I say "sleeping" in quotes because it was not exactly the most comfortable position to sleep in and I was freaking out that I might fall asleep and drop my baby. Luckily that did not happen.
The next day, Olivia woke up feeling much cooler, but still sensitive to being touched. She progressively got better, so I gave her a bath right before her follow-up appointment with the pediatrician. After another round of poking and prodding, they did a urine sample (via catheter...my poor little baby). And when the urine sample turned out normal, the doctor told us she wanted to get blood tests just to rule out any bacterial infection because a fever of 102.1 was above the "Low-grade" fever that is associated with teething. Of course, it was our decision whether we just wanted to wait and see if she got better (aka be bad parents) or be good parents and rule out any worst-case scenarios. Of course, we wanted to be good parents.
At the hospital, for the second time, as if Olivia hadn't been through enough, she had to have more needles...more pricks and prods. The doctor did not get enough blood on the first round, so she needed even another needle in her heel. My brave little baby. She cried, but also smiled and did not hate me afterwards....or so I hope. Of course, the results were all normal. It's good that she was fine, but bad that we still didn't know what was wrong with her.
The more the day progressed, Olivia seemed to get better on her own and I could resume picking her up and holding her without cries of pain. I started thinking to myself "It is too much of a coincidence that she's getting this fever (and the aches and pains associated with fever) and she's teething to think that those things couldn't be related). I can't believe all of these tests we just went through and this is probably just an "abnormal" reaction to teething. Oh woe is me, I just got used to not getting a bill from the hospital every other day. But, at least I am not in full panic mode. I guess it's better to feel like a fool when it comes to your baby than be on the other end of not knowing.
Now that she is teething, though, we are back to her newborn sleeping patterns of waking every three hours. Last night was pretty rough for all involved. I am still deciding whether I should be glad this happened on the weekend on my watch or if I should be totally selfish and be sad that my weekend went by and all I have to show for it is greasy hair and hairy legs for not having showered for two days straight. Is that TMI? TOUGH! I have just been through hell and back. On the bright side, my baby is okay. That is all that matters in the end.
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