Fever

Well, the thing I had been dreading in addition to me being sick with a baby was Edith being sick, and lucky me, we got to experience both firsts in the same week!

Edith woke up from her afternoon nap on Sunday blazing. I took her temperature several times and it was normal, but I did not believe it. After she shivered through dinner and cried when I “flew” her to her bath (usually her favorite part of the evening), the thermometer finally showed an elevated temperature. I called the 24/7 nurse line and a very nice RN walked me through taking it rectally — it was 100.2 so not terrible, but definitely a fever. He told me what to look for and what to do, and then I sped through my evening routine with Edith perched on my hip like a sack of lead instead of asleep like she normally is, so that she could go to bed with me.

It’s been a long time since Edith fell asleep in bed with me, so I was not updated on what’s now involved in her putting herself to sleep. It turns out to be a lot of line dancing, summersaulting, and giggling to herself like Muttley, among other things, and after she finally falls asleep (flat on her face, butt up high in the air), she sleeps very actively. This shouldn’t be a surprise as Edith does everything actively, but this active sleep was very much at me. She had a long expanse of bed to herself, but she preferred to buttress herself against me and then contort and wiggle and thrash and kick and slap. At one point, I was sound asleep when a hand abruptly shoved itself through my teeth and into my mouth like the back of my throat owed it money.

All this to say that I did not sleep well, if at all. I was very worried also, so that didn’t help.

She seems better today but she’s still warm and has some swollen lymph nodes so I might take her to the doctor tomorrow if she isn’t fully over it in the morning. Meanwhile, I don’t think I can do another night of bedsharing, so the big issue this evening will be seeing how Edith takes being disinvited from the Big Bed (again) after mysteriously getting to spend a full night there. I’m going to go out on a limb and predict: not well!