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mcatmay
member
Mom fail
mcatmay
member
DD had been fighting naps all day yesterday and then, last night, started to feel warm - took her temperature and yes, she had a fever (100.8F). I tried to 'play it cool" but, of course, started stressing. I gave her a dose of acetominophen, off to bed and that was that.
At 10:45pm, she woke up SCREAMING. DH bolted out of bed with me, yelling, 'what's going on?! what's going on?!". I picked her up, she continued screaming, didn't want to calm down with nursing - nothing i did soothed her (which never happens - she always stops the minute i hold her). She felt like she was burning up... and, with baby screaming, DH asking me to tell him what to do, any and all common sense or medical knowledge i had just evaporated.
I finally took her to the bathroom so i could pluck her in a cool bath if she was febrile and her eyes started to do weird things. Suddenly, i was convinced she was having a seizure from the fever. Took her temp - still 100.8F. No way it could be a seizure. Baby still screaming, DH still panicking, i finally took a deep breath and said, "come on, you're TRAINED for this! What would you do if this were a foal - STOP panicking and THINK".
Long story short, i regrouped, thank God (SOMEONE had to!). I realized that she wasn't seizuring but was just startled from feeling cruddy, being ripped out of the nursery and thrust into the bright light and being totally disoriented with a mom and dad who were not with it. A call to the pedi assured me that we didn't need to rush her to the hospital unless she had trouble breathing or a temperature of 104F or greater. As i type out this story, i want to bang my head slowly against a wall at how stupid i was.
So, for those of you who feel like you might have done something silly, at least you're not calling your pediatrician at 11pm at night in a panic over a mild fever. This, from a veterinarian that was an emergency veterinarian at a huge hospital. I've just learned that when it's your child, all level-headed logic goes out the window. I've also learned that I will be a basket case if anything serious ever happens to DD... and that i will do anything, ANYTHING to ever stop her from screaming like that again...it totally ripped at my soul. No one ever warned me how much you could love a child.
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Re: Mom fail
Change a few of the details...but this was basically us with DS this past Friday night. Somehow all common sense flies out the window when your little one looks to be in distress and they cannot tell you why. Looking back I feel so silly how things played out. So yeah we are those parents that freaked out over what turned out to be a common virus (I am sure our pediatrician loves us).
You are definitely not alone.
Hope your DD is feeling much better.
Aww...dont' worry. We've all been there. Same thing happened to us a few weekends ago when DS was inconsolable from his chicken pox vaccine. DH and I started to freak b/c he just would not stop screaming with this cry I had never heard before.
We were running through all the tricks we used from HBOTB when he was a newborn and for about 2 minutes were contemplating swaddling him. Here DH and I were, freaking out in the bathroom, with the sinks and fans running for white noise, swinging him, trying to figure out if it was possible to swaddle a 30 pound toddler. Thankfully, DS must have recognized our crazy b/c he stopped crying right at the moment before I tried to find an old miracle blanket.
Thanks, ladies, for making me feel a little more normal :-) Kafunder, you gave me my first laugh today. I could TOTALLY see DH and I doing some similar, bewildered in the bathroom.
DD's still dragging today but not febrile - we'll see what the evening brings.
I don't think that's a fail. As a parent, I usually err on the side of caution. I can't even tell you how often I've called Kaiser's 24 hour nurse hotline in the middle of the night to get advice or taken DD to urgent care. I always think better safe than sorry.
OMG - I am dying picturing a huge toddler in a swaddle! Thanks for the giggle :-)
not a fail, at all! You tried your best to make her better, which is what a good Mom does! And it's always best to call your pedi, it's what they are there for!!
And as for medical training, I talked to our pedi today to get a 2nd opinion on DD's surgery tomorrow, she's the only 1 who's seen her, and she confirmed that we should go ahead and do it and told me that when her baby had to have surgery, she was just as big a mess as all the other parents in the waiting room and did not tell anyone she was a pedi.
Mom 1st, Dr/Vet/other profession 2nd!
Been there done that - I once called the pedi when DS had a blood blister on his finger from an accident a few days earlier. When I looked at the finger the whole thing looked like it was much darker - like turning bluish. After I left the message with the pedi I looked closer and realized that all of his fingers were discolored....from newspaper ink :0
Oh and I am an LVT so I do have some medical background too