The First Cold/Fever

Julia inherited my constitution, or so it seems. She can eat anything without adverse effects, she's hot-natured, and she doesn't get sick. Of course, I have to throw in that studies show babies who are breastfed for their first year are less likely to get sick which makes the timing - 1 month after she weaned - of Julia's first cold interesting...

About 2 weeks ago she got really congested but it didn't seem to have much affect on her. We started with the humidifier and eucalyptus infused steam baths combined with J/A/S/O/N Cooling Mineral Gel Tea Tree Pain Reliever (essentially the same as Vicks Vaporub). The congestion seemed to clear up and then Tues night I put Julia to bed at 6pm and she slept until 8am, which was a little unusual - about 2 hours longer than normal. The morning progressed as usual but at lunch she was crankier than her usual "Feed me NOW!" cranky. She eat as much either. I put her down for a nap, she slept 2 hours but seemed tired still so I left her. She slept for another hour and woke up really hot to the touch. I took her temp with one of our thermometers. It read 103.1 but she wasn't acting that sick - she was a little slower than normal but happy and chatty and playful none-the-less. I didn't think to take it a 2nd reading. I laid her back down and she tried to doze off while I called Tara and Bonnie (left a message). I looked it up on the Internet and didn't see any reason to be alarmed and since I haven't gotten really sick in years I wasn't too worried. Tara got home, held Julia and she went back to sleep. B/c of all the sleeping I started to get nervous. We watched TV but I couldn't concentrate and I was hyper alert listening for her.

She woke up at 8:30pm and seemed much perkier. Her temp was closer to 100 so we brought her down for a dinner of oatmeal and milk. Then we gave her a bath and took her back to bed. She was quiet but I had horrible dreams all night.

This morning Julia woke up at her usual 6:40ish, her temp was 99.8 (which is apparently 98.8 orally) and she had some oats, banana and milk, as usual. I let her play a little in her room and laid her back down for a nap. She slept for 2 hours, her first morning nap in months.

Julia has given us no worries (other than the slow weight gain) in these past 14 months and I now have an idea of that knot in your gut when something is wrong and you can't do anything about it. This incident again reminds me of what a carefree baby I have; she's inquisitive, healthy and happy. I am also reminded that I am an extremely fortunate man.