A Scary Weekend

Boy, Miss MaeMae gave us a run for our money this weekend.

She's had a minor cold all week and on Sunday she woke up with a very low-grade fever. She was acting just fine, so I didn't really worry much about it. We took our nap and she woke up just being sooooo cranky and moody and crying and she was burning up. She was hot to the touch.

I knew she had a fever so I tried to take her temperature, but she wouldn't let me. She kept kicking and screaming so I didn't want to make her more hot and upset so I just gave her a dose of Children's Advil and took her back to bed.

It seemed like she was going to fall back asleep but after about 15 minutes she bolted up out of sleep and threw up all over me, the bed, the floor and herself. Then she started crying.

Poor thing. At this point, I didn't know what to do because I knew she had a very high fever but I couldn't give her any more medicine for it because I didn't want her to throw up again. I sent Kevin to the store for apple juice and bananas (after he cleaned up all the barf), and I sat on the couch with the little sickie with a cold cloth on her neck.

She laid on me for about 10 minutes just staring into space. She was sooooo hot and I knew she felt miserable but I couldn't think to do anything else. Then it happened: our baby Maelin had a seizure!!! It was the scariest thing I've ever seen. It only lasted about 3-5 seconds, but believe me, that's long enough when you see your baby shaking and convulsing in your arms and you're totally helpless to help her.

It was awful. After it was done, she started screaming and I called our doctor. He had me take her temperature (she was so subdued at this point, it was easy to do) and it was almost 105 degrees...WAY too high for a little baby. The doctor told me we should rush her to the ER because they needed to rule out meningitis.

This was probably the worst time we've had with Maelin yet. We knew we had to be calm for her sake, but inside, Kevin and I were terrified. Were they going to have to give our baby a spinal tap? Would she be admitted? Was there something seriously wrong with her that made her fever so fast and furious?

We threw together a diaper bag, called some family, and jumped in the car to go to the hospital. On the way, baby Maelin threw up again all over her carseat, the car, her clothes and her jacket. Lovely. Of course, I was so upset I hadn't packed a change of clothes for her. So we finally got to the ER and we stripped her down so we walked in holding our baby wrapped in her blankie and only wearing socks and a diaper.

We got in immediately which was nice. They gave Maelin more baby Tylenol AND baby Advil all at once; they wanted to get her fever down as quickly as possible. Then they said the same thing our doctor had said: let's wait and see if the medicine brings her fever down. If she throws it up again or it doesn't work, we'll probably have to do a spinal tap.

So we settled down to wait. Maelin was miserable. I got to lay in the bed with her, but she was so hot and uncomfortable. Kevin and I just sat and watched our little girl and we were trying so hard to keep it together for her sake.

Eventually, we noticed that her little personality was starting to come back. She started singing again and being interested in the room. She loved the remote control and spent quite a lot of time turning the TV on and off. That made us think that maybe she'd be okay.

The doctor came back and checked her temp again: 101. So the fever was starting to come down which meant it wasn't meningitis: no spinal tap. That's great news!, we thought. However, they noticed she had an ear infection and they wanted to see if she also had an UTI (urinary tract infection.) The way they do this in babies is to insert a catheter into her urethra. That was awful.

I had to hold my baby down while two nurses (who weren't great at this, by the way) stuck a needle into her privates and held it there while they got as much urine out as they could. She was kicking and screaming and crying and holding me and looking at me like, "Mommy, why are you letting them DO this to me????" It was all I could do to just hold her and sing to her and tell her it would be okay and over soon. Poor thing.

The test came back positive: our little one has a UTI and an ear infection which is probably what made her fever shoot up so quickly. We got a prescription for some heavy-duty antibiotics and we were home in time for bed. We had to wake Maelin up every four hours on Sunday night to give her Advil to keep her fever under control (which was NOT fun in the least...try waking up a sleeping baby, shoving medicine in her mouth, then have her go back to sleep. Doesn't work real well), but other than that, she seems to have turned the corner and she's back to her cute little self.

Whew. I NEVER want to go through that again. However, I was thinking while we were there how lucky Kevin and I were to have doctors and hospitals and medicine that was able to take care of our little love. I can't imagine being uninsured and not able to take my daughter to get help when she needs it.

p.s....I'm sick too. I have a horrible cold...of course. Keep your fingers crossed that Maelin doesn't get this too and/or this doesn't turn into pneumonia like it did last year