Broken Fever

After another sleep-interrupted night for our family, Keira's fever finally broke sometime during the night. We woke her up at 1:45 in the morning and gave her Motrin even though she wasn't very warm. We didn't want to risk it! She of course fully woke up and thought it was time to party. She found laying in Mommy and Daddy's bed to be the most exciting thing ever. I finally had to put her in her bed and let her cry (she was very mad!) for several minutes until she figured out that we weren't coming back in for her. When she woke up at 7:45 for the next dose, her temperature was normal so we delayed giving her any meds.

Since she still had a fever last night, we decided to take her into see the pediatrician this morning despite not having a fever before we left for the doctor's office. Yesterday her temp hadn't been elevated until 7-9 hours after the last dose of Motrin. If we waited to see if she had a fever at 10, then we wouldn't have gotten to the pediatrician's office until 10:40 or so and then have to wait who knows how long to see a doctor. Better safe than sorry was our mantra! So we arrived at the ped's office at about 9:35. The waiting room was full! I guess that's what happens when you have three offices and only one of them has walk-in hours on Saturday. We waited two hours before they called us back to the exam room, then we were in there for about 45 minutes. Short story: fever gone with temp down to 98.6 with 10 1/2 hours since last dose of Motrin. White patches at back of throat almost gone. Urine culture from ER came back negative for UTI.

Baby all fixed up and in good spirits. She fell asleep within minutes of getting in the car to go home and I was able to get her take a nap when she got home. She slept for a good 1-1/2 hours and I did too. It's now time for Mommy to recover from the stress of the last three days! I took a nap too and woke up with a headache and feel not so good. Probably the release of all that stress!

Now we just cross our fingers that she doesn't come down with something from the waiting room this morning!

A high fever, a febrile seizure, and an ambulance ride...

Keira awoke at 3:30 am early Wednesday morning with a fever. I gave her Motrin and it was about an hour until she went back to sleep for about an hour. She woke up again at 6:30, but pretty quickly went back to sleep. I canceled our activities for the day, and we spent the day at home with my friend Gabrielle coming over for lunch. Throughout the day on Wednesday, Keira was in pretty good spirits despite the fever. At 4:30, I gave her the next dose of Tylenol and her fever was high at 103 degrees. I had a game night planned with some girlfriends so I went to that and got back at about 10 pm. I typed up the Chuck E. Cheese blog entry, then went upstairs to get Ryan so we could check on Keira.

Ryan and I woke Keira up at around 10:30 that night to give her the next dose of Tylenol. She was very warm and sort of disoriented. She did not want to take the medicine and it took us a while to get some in her. She was fighting us. Seconds after taking the first half of the Tylenol dosage, Keira had a seizure at 10:40 for about 2 minutes. She never stopped breathing or anything, her entire body just seized up and sort of convulsed (not violently) with her limbs stiff and her feet pointed down, her eyes open, and gurgling, ragged breath coming out of her mouth. Ryan immediately called 911 (while she was still seizing) and a firetruck and ambulance arrived at our house within five minutes. When she came out of the seizure she immediately began crying and was very upset. While waiting for the EMTs to arrive, we stripped her down to her diaper to help cool her down. The EMTs checked her out and got the details of what had happened. I think her temperature was at 104 or so when they checked it at that time. They said we needed to take to the hospital to get her fever down and have her checked out. I dressed her in a bodysuit and gave her to Ryan so that I could change out of my pajamas. We wrapped her in a blanket, grapped her diaper bag, my wallet (for her insurance card) and some extra diapers, then ran out to the ambulance. The temperature outside had already dropped into the mid-teens so it was very cold out.

I held Keira in my lap on the stretcher while we were taken to the nearest hospital in the ambulance. Ryan was to meet us at the ER in our car. He was already there when Keira and I were rolled out of the ambulance on the stretcher. When we got to the ER, her fever was up to 104.9 and the nurses administered Motrin to bring the fever down. Keira was very upset and crying a lot and wanted me and only me to hold her. By 12:30 when the fever had dropped substantially, Keira was in much better spirits and no longer crying all the time, playing with Daddy and his cell phone. Her fever was down to 99.3 by about 1:00 am. Since the tests for flu and RSV came back negative and the two X rays taken of her chest did not show anything wrong, the seizure was diagnosed as a febrile seizure and we were sent home with instructions to give her Motrin and Tylenol alternately every four hours and to follow-up with the pediatrician the next day. I figured the fever might be due to the vaccinations that she had received on Monday afternoon, so the diagnosis made sense. When we got her in the car to go home, she was smiling and making happy noises and was very happy to be in her car seat and familiar surroundings. After stopping at a 24-hour pharmacy for more Motrin, we got home at about 1:30 and she went to sleep almost immediately.

Needless to say, Ryan and I didn't sleep much that night. The Tylenol and Motrin kept her fever down. When she woke up at 9:30 that morning, her fever was back up to 102.5 so we gave her the next dose of Motrin. We got to the pediatrician at about 10:15 that morning and were there for over two hours. At about 11 that morning, here fever was down to 101. The doctor did not think that the vaccinations would cause such a high fever, so some tests were run on Keira to try to determine the cause. A throat culture determined it was not Strep, and a blood count came back with Keira's white blood cell count elevated with anti-viral and anti-bacterial about equal. So it was thought that it was a viral infection. We were told that if she still has a fever on Saturday, that we should bring her into the office again.

Thursday afternoon when she woke up from her nap, her temperature was not elevated, but we gave her Motrin anyway. When we put her to bed at 8:00 pm, her temp was back up to 100.6 so we put her to bed knowing that we would need to wake her up at 9:30 to give her another dose of Motrin. At 9:15 she was very restless in her crib, so we woke her up, gave her the next dose of Motrin, and her temperature was up to 101.9. At 3:15 am Friday, we again woke her up to give her another dose of Motrin. When she woke up the next morning at 8:30, her temperature was down to 99.0 deg. I thought the fever had broken. However, at a little after 10 am, she was feeling a little warmer so I checked her temperature and it was back up to 101.0 so I gave her more Motrin. At 4:10, it was time for another dose, but her temp was 98.6 so I checked her again at 5:00, now it was only 99.6. So we waited until bedtime at 7:45 to check her temperature again. This time it was 101.3 so we gave her more Motrin and put her to bed for the night. We'll wake her again at 1:45 to give her another dose. It's looking pretty likely that we'll be making that trip to the pediatrician's office in the morning.

Throughout Thursday and Friday, Keira has been in good spirits, eating fairly well, and sleeping well albeit fitful. I am just so thankful that the seizure was not as bad as it could have been.

It turns out that febrile seizures are not uncommon and generally do not cause any long-term effects. However, there is now a higher chance that she may experience one again so we will have to be more aggressive in our treatment of fevers. Whereas previously the doctor didn't see a need for Motrin until the fever was 102 deg or higher, now it is recommended that we give her Motrin for fevers above 100.4 deg. Whereas previously, we could have given her Motrin once at bedtime, then only give another dosage if she woke up again during the night needing one, now it is recommended that we wake her up after six hours for the next dose.

I am just thankful that my beautiful baby girl is okay. I hope that she never experiences another seizure (for her sake and ours) like the one she had on Wednesday night, but I realize that there is a chance that she will. Hopefully tomorrow we will have more news as to why this fever has not yet broken. I will post an update tomorrow night.

Chuck E. Cheese Rediscovered

Yesterday one of my mom's groups went to Chuck E. Cheese. Um, can we say, fun! We had such a great time. There were 7 moms and their kids ranging in age from 10 months to 36 months, and we all had a blast!

The place was pretty empty so we had all the riding toys pretty much to ourselves. Keira loved it! Well, except for the monster truck! Nobody liked the monster truck. It was too unpredictable in its movement.

Anyway, we played for about an hour before heading over to have some lunch. Imagine our table:
mom, child, mom, child, mom, child
mom, child, mom, child, mom, child, mom, child.

Yes, we had 7 high chairs! Tee hee! Keira enjoyed her piece of pizza and a banana (from home). Then we played for another half hour or so before heading home to take a monster nap: 2 1/2 hours! Yea for mommytime.

Super Bowl Sunday

We had a very intimate Super Bowl party this year: Daddy, Mommy, and Keira! We enjoyed a nice afternoon watching the game and rooting for the Steelers.

Keira even watched a little of the game with Daddyand Mommy, when she wasn't enjoying playing with her butterfly wings, wielding the drumstick from her Bee Bop Band,making funny faces,or attempting to climb up on the coffee table.
Keira went to bed at halftime. The only thing we would have changed was to be rooting for the Giants!

There's always next year... Go Giants!!

15 Months Old and a checkup to prove it

Keira turned 15 months old yesterday! It seems like just yesterday I was in the hospital on bedrest, trying not to have her early, and then she came almost five weeks early anyway. Lucky for us, she was a healthy little thing with well developed lungs and a great appetite.

This afternoon, Keira had her 15 month checkup with the doctor. Since being born, she has grown so much:

.............Weight........Height
Birth......7 lb 1 oz.....19.50 in
2 mo....12 lb 13 oz...22.75 in
4 mo....14 lb............25.00 in
6 mo....18 lb 3 oz.....26.60 in
9 mo....21 lb 2 oz.....27.75 in
12 mo..23 lb 11 oz....30.00 in
15 mo..25 lb 3 oz......31.50 in

At birth, Keira was in the 25th percentile for weight and the 50th percentile for height. By 2 months, she was in the 90th percentile for weight, and by 4 months, the 75th percentile for height. Her weight and height percentiles have both converged into the low 80th percentile ranges and are now at 83% and 82%, respectively.

Of her close friends, she definitely has the biggest head. And her head circumference shows it! At 6 months, it topped the growth charts in the 93rd percentile. At 15 months, her head is in the 80th percentile. Hopefully it means there is lots of brain matter in there ready to absorb everything that her daddy and I have to teach her!

We were able to tell the doctor the following:

Walking: Keira can walk independently as far as 12 ft, but only walks about 20% of the time. The doctor said it is completely normal that she walks like a duck (Ryan's concern, not mine).

Talking: Keira says three words (Mama, Dada, tickle), maybe a fourth (kitty). However she does understand quite a few more words: she can sign 6 or 7 words, and can point to 7-9 body parts
The doctor said her verbal skills are about average right now, and should hopefully say about 10 words at 18 months. She did say that she would not expect a 15 month old to know as many body parts as she does so her verbal recognition is great. She said to just continue reading lots of books to Keira and that will help with the verbal skills.

Eating: Keira wants to eat all the time, but there are times that we have to cut her off. She really likes to drink her milk and eat fruit. We were concerned that we were feeding her too much!
The doctor said that cutting her off is fine, she should be drinking lots of water throughout the day when she is not drinking milk, and to give her lots of fruits and veggies at snack time rather than fill her up with crackers and goldfish (Keira is not going to be happy to hear that as she loves her goldfish!).

Head tilting: Since Keira was like 6 months old, she has gone through phases were she tilts her head to one side or another for about a week, then it goes back to normal for a month or so before happening again. Previously it was diagnosed by an ER doctor as torticollis. It happened again last week, so we mentioned this to the doctor.
The doctor said that this really doesn't sound like torticollis since it is not persistent and is not always on the same side. She suggested that we see an eye doctor to have Keira's vision checked just to make sure that something isn't wrong there for which she is compensating. If her vision is fine, it may just be a "thing" that she is doing. We'll cross our fingers that there is no vision issue.

With Keira being premature by about 4 1/2 weeks (she was born at 35 weeks 2 days for you other mommies), I always have to remind myself that she may be a little behind learning new things than other children born around the same time as her. It is hard to see your child sitting up later, crawling later, cruising later, and, currently, walking later than other babies who were born less than two weeks earlier than her. Foremost in my mind is that there is something wrong with her! But I try to keep the panic at bay most of the time and remember that being born a month early can be a big deal developmentally when your age is still being counted in months! I always feel better after the doctor's well visits to know that Keira is right on track and that nothing about her development has alarmed the doctor. Phew! I guess we are doing something right!

Bahama Mama (and Da Da, too)

On Saturday, I booked a 6-night trip to the Bahamas in August for Ryan and I to attend a friend's wedding. Yes, I said Ryan and I... Little Miss Keira will be staying home with Grandma and Grandpa while Ryan and I are gone.

How do I feel about leaving my 21-month old child for 6 nights? A little fearful, but also a lot excited! It has to happen at some point, right? And it's not like there aren't telephones in the Bahamas. Ryan and I talked about going for only 4 nights, but whats two more if you've already been gone for that long. We talked about taking Keira along with us, but a 21 month old in a hotel room for 4-6 nights = not fun! We talked about Grandma and Grandpa coming along, but that's not quite as romantic. So it was officially determined that Grandma and Grandpa will come down to our house at least one day before we leave and then spend the entire week enjoying some alone time with their granddaughter.

I think they will have a really fun time with Keira, and Ryan and I will have a really fun time without Keira. Sounds perfect, right?

We will be staying at an all-inclusive resort with 122 feet of white sand beach! Yummy food and relaxing beach time, what more could a mom ask for?

Snow hysterics!

Last Tuesday it snowed here! Keira and I had plans with our friends Arria and Ellie to walk at the mall at 8:30 that morning, so we still went to do that despite the fact that it was snowing and, more importantly, the snow was definitely sticking to the ground.

After our walk, we went over to a friend D's house to play until lunchtime. We three moms decided it would be a great idea to take our three girls outside to let them "play" in the snow. Um, great idea? Not quite. We bundled them up in their snow gear (coats and hats, double layers, etc.) and took them out in the front yard. F and E can both walk and Keira cannot. So we thought the two walkers would do great and I would just let Keira cling to my legs. We just want to snap a few pictures and videotape before heading back inside.

The first few minutes go really well. A snaps a few pictures, while D shoots some video. Then, E toddles across the driveway and falls into the snow. She begins crying... F stands there bundled in her snowsuit and jacket and joins E in the crying jag. Keira somehow lets go of my legs, falls to her knees, and saves her fall with her left hand. As soon as she feels the snow covering her hand, she begins crying too! So now all three of them are crying hysterically. We three moms can't stop ourselves from laughing because it is just too funny that all three girls are crying at once and are inconsolable.

We hurry up and take them back inside thinking this will make them happy. Finally after about 5 or 10 minutes, we finally have them in happier spirits so we go upstairs for some hot cocoa (for the moms) and snack (for the girls). Disaster over!