Getting better...

Boy, it has been a roller coaster of emotions here at the Diaz house over the last few days.  Elena gave us our first fever scare on Wednesday.  We didn't think too much of it when she went to bed on Wednesday night as she was eating and drinking with no problem at all.  Elena woke up on Thursday morning with a 99 degree temperature, so I definitely thought we were in the clear.  She was still rather irritable and clingy, but with her temperature down, I was feeling much better.  She took a short morning nap on Thursday morning  so I took the opportunity to cut the grass while Elena slept.  She woke up way earlier than I assumed she would, so we had an early lunch and enjoyed some play time in the afternoon.  Elena went down for her afternoon nap a little after 1pm and she slept for a little over 2 hours.  When she woke up, her temperature had gone back up to 102.  I didn't get too alarmed as I know little ones' fevers can fluctuate often.  I decided to wait an hour or so to take the temp again and it was back down to 101.  Elena continued to act normally, with no cold symptoms whatsoever through the evening.  As we neared bedtime, Elena's fever was back up between 102-102.5.  We took a lukewarm bath and put Elena to sleep at 6:45, a little earlier than usual, but she was just SO tired.  I was very nervous on Thursday evening putting her to sleep because it seemed like she was very warm.  Just a few hours later, she woke up crying, which is very unusual for Elena.  We went in to check her and she was burning up.  I almost started to panic, but Juan quickly told me to stay calm, take her temperature, and go from there.  I took her temperature three times in a row to get a good average and we were hovering around 104-104.8.  I quickly got on the phone with the hospital nurse line to find out what the was the best thing for us to do for our baby girl.  While we waited for a nurse to call us back after my initial call, Elena took a bottle, so that was very reassuring.  She was keeping liquids down and appeared very thirsty. At this point, we had not given Elena any fever medication as she was not consistent with a fever for an extended period of time. The nurse finally called us back and let us know to just put Elena in a t-shirt and diaper for the rest of the night in bed and to go ahead and give her a dose of the infant Advil we had here at home.  We were instructed to then let her sleep, not to wake her up to take her temperature, and call the pediatrician in the morning to have her checked out.  So, of course, this is exactly what we did.  The fever medication really helped Elena and she was back down to 99 degrees by Friday morning.  She even slept through the night until about 7am.  Juan and I were the ones not sleeping through the night :)  I think we got up every hour or two to go check on her.  I stayed home from school again on Friday and my mom agreed to still come out to help me take care of our sick girl.  We went to the doctor together and he didn't see anything too alarming...her heart and lungs sounded OK, but she had just a few red spots on her throat.  Dr. Wheeler mentioned that they may turn into nothing, we just have to wait and see since Elena hasn't been showing signs of being sick.  We were to just keep her on her fever medicine and let her rest, play, and drink lots of formula.  Since yesterday, Elena hasn't spiked a fever at all.  She has remained around 99 degrees for over 24 hours...SO THANKFUL!  We were so nervous on Thursday night when Elena was burning up and her face was so red.  It was comforting to talk with the nurse, give Elena a small bottle and medicine, and snuggle her back to sleep. We keep praying each day that she remains fever free and this doesn't turn into something more!

Even when she's not feeling well, Elena likes to sit and read (or eat) her books!!