Monday, April 21, 2008
Baby Bug is sick!
Baby Bug has been sick recently. She started feeling warm yesterday afternoon and we gave her a dose of infant Tylenol at around 4:30 PM. Her fever continued throughout the night, despite the additional doses of infant Tylenol every 4 hours. She started to have projectile, watery diarrhea and she became listless and agitated. She even started moaning in her sleep!I've dealt with sick babies, Snuggle Bug got fevers from time to time, but having Baby Bug sick terrified me! I felt so bad for her and there was an added layer of worry. I worried for her parents too. What if Baby Bug's illness was more than just a viral infection? What if something was seriously wrong. As much as I love her, she isn't my child. I am responsible for a child of another couple. What if I screwed something up?! The enormity of this responsibility for Baby Bug's well being weighed heavy on me last night.
I was up all night with Baby Bug, holding her constantly, snatching bits of sleep in between changing numerous diapers (bad diarrhea) and trying to coax her to keep drinking fluids.
At 6 AM my worry got the best of me and I called my pediatrician and spoke with an on-call nurse. She assured me I was doing everything right and told me that a 48-72 hour viral infection was going around right now. She gave me some suggestions and encouraged me to call back later in the morning if Baby Bug's fever got above 101.4.
Today is visit day for Baby Bug. I had to drop her off to the daycare center by 9 AM. I documented everything involving Baby Bug's illness and packed up Pedialyte, Aquaphor, a new digital thermometer, and my detailed list involving her illness and the nurse's instructions. I did not want to hand Baby Bug over, even to her mom, with her so sick, but I had no choice.
Just before leaving the house, Oronzo and I checked her temperature one last time. It was 104.3! I called the doctor's office on my way out the door, expecting to be asked to bring Baby Bug in. I decided that I would stop by the daycare, fill Baby Bug's mom in, and ask her to come with me to the doctor's office.
Amazingly, the doctor's office said they didn't need to see her. They told me to keep administering the infant Tylenol, push the fluids, and wait it out. If her fever didn't break within four hours, to call back.
I had to hand Baby Bug over to her mom, fill her in, and watch as she drove away. I prayed that her mom would take good care of her until we got her back at 4:30 PM. I called and emailed the CPS worker, filling her in, and asking that she send someone over today to check in on Baby Bug's parents, to make sure they didn't need anything. I never heard back from the CPS worker so I have no idea if that's been done.
In about an hour, I can go pick Baby Bug back up at the daycare and make sure she's doing okay. I'm sure her parents will be quite worried about her too. They won't see her again until Wednesday. I'll have to see if I can't convince the CPS worker to share updates with them tomorrow, if she'll ever get back to me! Better yet, I think I'll call them myself.
Yet another reason why fostering is not always easy.
Labels: Baby Bug, foster children, fostering, illness
13 Comments:
Wow, the daycare let you drop her off with her being that sick? Most daycares won't take a child with a fever, especially one that high!
Praying that all is okay...keep us updated!
Allie
I am with Allie, I can't believe the day care approved it.
I am very irritated with CPS for not caring enough. They are supposed to be looking out for her best interests not their convience.
I'm so sorry she's sick. I can't imagine the enormity of what you are feeling ...
I was wondering- does you pediatrician recommend doing Motrin and Tylenol together to break those fevers? It's only been about a hundred years since I had an infant around, but Jonathan used to get high fevers. We would do one every 4 hours and one offset the other every 4 hours . Basically, he got Tylenol at 2, 6, 10, etc and the Motrin at 4,8 and 12 til it broke.
Don't know if that helps- But I'm praying, and that will :)
I have lost how old Baby Bug is, but we used to push liquids using popsicles. They get liquid, they get sugar (which babies do need) and they get cooling, also.
Ah, the germ factory know as day care strikes again. Princess was so sick during her first year of day care. But they never let us drop her off with a fever!
I can't imagine how difficult it was to hand Baby Bug over to another person while she was that sick. She is in my prayers. Please let us know how she is doing today.
I hope she's feeling better today!
Oh my gosh! I'm surprised that the doctor didn't make you come in! I'm also surprised the daycare let you drop her off! Wow! I hope she gets better soon! Poor thing! It's so sad she has to be carted all over the place while sick! :( Like you said, though, you have no choice.
That sounds so hard to do. Yes, another reason why foster is'nt easy. I will be praying she gets better.
Wow, I am surprised the doctor didn't want to see her? I don't understand why she has to go somewhere, even if it is to her parents when she is sick? Our doctor wants to see the kids - Alexys has the same doctor when the temp is 103 or more.
I pray for peace of mind for you. Keeping you in my prayers. Hugs!
I can't imagine how hard that must have been dropping off Baby Bug when she was so sick. I hope she's doing better....
I hope baby bug is feeling better and everything went smoothly this afternoon. Keeping her in my prayers.
God bless you for thinking about giving the baby's parents and update yourself.
Our babies are in "kinship care" at the moment. (My husband had a bit of a breakdown and considered taking his own life. The children were in the house at the time and CPS decided to remove them until my husband gets back on track... no drugs or anything, just to make sure he's feeling better.)
We are blessed in that our babies are with a family member who talks with us just about every night and gives us all the little details that make is not as heartwrenching that they're gone. Like when they come home, we won't be so out of the loop. I can not imagine how it must be for parents who love their children to not know anything about them while they're gone.
One of the things we're most grateful to our family member for is that (other than the fact that we *know* that she is taking good care of them and loves them) she knows how much we miss them and is trying to make sure that we and the children maintain some sort of bond. She calls us when she has a question about their care, their likes and dislikes, their habits and behaviors. We feel that even though this is happening, the children will not suffer tremendously for it. (They're young enough that several counselors that we've spoken to said that they probably won't remember much if any of this.)
I don't know if you know anything about the other side of foster/kinship care. Something that we've realized is that with the CPS people that we've dealt with, if it wasn't for our family member, we would know absolutely nothing about what's going on with our children. "Our" CPS worker does not talk with us. She does, on occasion, speak with our family member, who, thank God, talks to us so we know what's going on.
If you don't mind a somewhat biased opinion, if you are allowed to contact the baby's parents and they seem like they will care... talk to them. Tell them how their baby is doing. It's a horrible thing to hear another person telling you that your child has a cold or something and not being able to hold your baby and comfort her and tend to her, but it's a darn sight better than not knowing anything. At least if you let them know what's going on, they can rest assured that you're taking good care of their ailing baby.
Thank you for being so thoughtful of the other side of things.
(staying anonymous for obvious reasons, but I'm not a regular reader of yours)
Those high fevers can be scary. You sound like a wonderful mom!
Genny
Post a Comment
<< Home