Steppin' To The Bad Side...

Poked and Prodded to the Max

On Monday night, as I was putting Jayla to bed, I noticed that she was a little warm. I took her temperature - 101.3 - no need to be too alarmed. I gave her a dose of Tylenol and put her down to sleep.

I really did not think much of it and even considered not telling my husband about it. But, I did right before we went to bed just so he would know to check her out when he woke her up the next morning.

She was still running a fever when he got her up on Tuesday - still 101.3. She was really lethargic so, he gave her more Tylenol and let her sleep some more. I volunteered to stay home with her for the day because it was the day before the holiday and frankly, there was absolutely no reason for me to go to work.

She woke up again just after her daddy left for work and really wanted nothing more than to just lay around and watch PBS while I surfed the web from the couch. It really was a great morning.

I tried to put her down for a nap a little early. She slept for about 20 minutes and then woke up screaming. I picked her up and she was burning up! Her skin looked red and was hot to the touch. I took her temperature and with every 1/10 degree that the number increased, I was just praying that it would STOP GOING UP ALREADY!!

It didn't stop until it had reached 104.7. That's degrees, people. The child had a fever of 104.7 degrees! I thought of my boss' stories of how his child went into seisures at 105 degrees. My immediate thoughts were to get her in a bathtub of cold water and call the doctor.

I let her sit in the bathtub as the water ran and I called the doctor's office. They, of course, were at lunch and would not monitor the voicemail for another 2 hours - when they opened back up! I left a message and focused on cooling her down.

I managed to get the fever down into the 102 range before she went down for her full nap. Please remind me the next time to just go straight to the Motrin. Tylenol does NOTHING for this girl.

Her fever continued to decrease through the afternoon and then we had a doctor's appointment later on. I think that doctor's appointment was definitely the worst part of the day for Jayla.

By the time we left the doctor's office, she'd had blood drawn from both of her arms, her finger pricked, been catheterized, and had a shot of antibiotices in her thigh. She faught everything tooth and nail. I was very proud of her for fighting back when she perceived that someone was hurting her. But, really, I'm so glad that her daddy was there to hold her down. It freed me up to cry in the corner as they poked and prodded by baby.

So, she either started feeling better from the shot or the threat of having to ever go back to that dreading doctor's office...

Where ReRe's Shouldn't Go

So, Jayla has this thing where she is constantly requesting a snack consisting of "ReRe's and Crackers". The crackers are always whole grain goldfish. No one can figure out why this combination is so appealing to her but, it is her absolute favorite. But, ultimately, we know it will shut her up so, when we get home in the evenings I usually give her a bowl of rere's and she quietly dissappears to the family room to watch Hannah (as in, Montana - as in, her favorite tv show for whatever reason).

In the past few weeks, she has gotten really bad about purposely emptying her bowl onto the floor. It is usually just a few remaining rere's after she has enhaled the crackers (which are soggy from the rere's, which further puzzles those of us who are more discerning with our food choices). It doesn't necessarily mean that she is finished with eating them. She simply doesn't want to see her snack in the bowl any longer. She prefers, instead, to decorate the floor with it.

In turn, her father and I have gotten really, really strict on making her pick up every single bit of her snack whenever she does this. It usually involves alot of painful screaming and crying but, the parents always win this battle. She continues to do it, though, and I can't figure out why she won't just let the rere's stay in the bowl because clearly mommy and daddy don't think they should go on the floor.

Nor should they go in Jayla's nose. In true Jayla fashion, she tested this theory on Saturday night.

We were at a movie in the park. They were playing Cars and it was free. We thought it would be a good opportunity to see how well Jayla would behave in a movie. We brought dinner with us and of course, a bowl of rere's and crackers. Since the movie started late, we managed to finish our dinner of Quizno's sandwiches and chips before it even started.

About mid-way through the movie, Jayla started looking through her bag and saw the bowl. She immediately went into a "rere/cracker" chant. I granted her demand. I even called myself getting ahead of the game by pouring the contents of the bowl into the tray on her stroller (in which she was strapped because otherwise, I would have spent the entire movie chasing her around the park!). I figured there was no additional mischief to be had because I emptied the bowl for her. But, I think she got the last laugh.

I looked at Jayla at one point and she had her index finger halfway up her nose. I initially ignored it and turned back to the movie. But, then I decided that is was disgusting so, I told her to take it out. She complied. Then she tried to take a breath through her nose. She started screaming and grabbed her nose. I immediately thought I knew what had transpired.

I mentioned my theory to my husband (who was utterly engrossed in the movie). He looked at me like, "what?!?" and then said something to the effect of, "why weren't you watching her!?!?". I thought, "When have I ever watched her eat rere's? Hannah watches her eat rere's. Not mama." But, I decided not to actually say that lest it become a discussion while the child still screams violently with every breath she tries to take.

So, my husband tried to reach up her nose to retrieve it, but couldn't. So, he told her to blow her nose. Let me tell ya'll - this is when I realized just how truly truly amazing this child is. She blew like she had never blown before with a force that said she understood just how important the blowing was at that moment. With that blow, my hunch was confirmed, we saw the rere peep out of her nose. She sucked it back in with her next breath. Then daddy said, "Blow hard, Jayla! One more time." She blew her nose with everything she had and the rere shot out and landed on the tray of her stroller.

I threw the remainder of the rere's away. For the first time ever, she didn't object.

On My Mind

Last night, I dreamed I was pregnant. Part of me wishes I were...but, that's not the plan right now.

It really doesn't get any easier!

We had great Memorial Day weekend. We were on the go alot - from a birthday party to dinner with friends to a show at a local amphitheater to two cookouts. But, as sappy as it sounds, the best part was just doing all these things with my little family.

That means the second best part must be the fact that it was a 3-day weekend that actually felt like a long weekend. I did not once think about work or even the fact that I had to go back there on Tuesday. It was quite a little shock to my system when I had to drop Jaya off yesterday morning.

See, contrary to popular belief (or at least the beliefs of some of the women at cookout #1 on Sunday evening), it does not get easier to drop your kid off at day care every morning. For me, it has gotten exponentially harder.

Technically, when Jayla was a little baby, I was so incredibly relieved to drop her off that it wasn't funny. I didn't know what to do with her so, I was comforted in the fact that I was leaving her with someone who knew what to do with babies. I was happy to drop her off and go to work because going to work was normal. It's what I knew and understood. New baby wasn't so comprehensible.

Now that she is older, I am more comfortable with having her around. She has become a part of the family. She is now what's normal and spending so much time away from her is not. We have fun together. She has a personality. We interact. We're friends.

I've been thinking about this lately but, I try not to let it get to me. But, I felt like I needed to set the record straight. It really doesn't get any easier. The truth is quite the contrary.