Mack Benjamin and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

So far there's been nothing to test our parenting instincts like this past week.

Labor Day weekend we had a blast when some old friends were in town with their one year old daughter. We spent all weekend with the Lavenders and Prestons (we all got married around the same time and then all had babies within the last year). Mack was excellent all weekend and will have a hard time choosing who to date first - Eleanor Lavender or Lily Preston. Although Lily Preston is already passing out kisses so why buy the cow when you can have the milk for free, right?

On Sunday I thought Mack felt warm but never took his temp - he had also been sleeping tons, slept all night and then 6:30am - 1:00 pm and then like 2pm - 7pm and then again all night. On Monday, he continued to sleep like that and I took his temp around noon and it was 101.2. I gave him some tylenol and that brought it down to 99.8 for a while and then it went back up to 101. Monday night I called the nurse line and she called the on-call pedi who said if the temp goes back up over 100.4 to call him and he would meet me in the office otherwise make an appt. for Tues. His temp continued to stay around 99.8. The only other behavior change is that when he is fussy he acts in pain - body turns red, screaming bloody murder. It was worse than Mack's colic.

On Tues, I couldn't get in to the pedi until 2pm so my mom came to keep Mack - his temp is still about 99.5-99.8. His only symptoms are the fever and sleeping - no runnynose or anything. So we actually see a different pedi in the group who examines him and is concerned that she can't feel his soft spot on his head. At first she's just like, "hmmm, keep a watch on this and bring it up at his 4 mo. wellness." Then she decides to get the opinion of another pedi who comes in and examines him. They leave and shut the door and I tell my mom, "she didn't say anything about his head - this is not good news." They come back and say we need to go straight to Children's because they are concerned that he could have meningitis. What happens with meningitis is that fluid gets in the brain and puts pressure on it -causing a fever and pain (thus the screaming).

So of course I am crying, we have friends whose son had viral meningitis and they had told us about their hospital visit & how horrible it was. Plus, I feel so third world country! Who gets meningitis? Well, apparently a lot of babies. I could not believe that a fever in an infant would be such a cause for concern that we would have to go to the ER.

Anyways, my mom was crying, too - we were probably not in the best shape to drive but I got us to Children's where of course all our family shows up. Jon and I both have amazing support systems through our families. We gather with family for everything and this was no exception. I'm so glad they came to just be there and keep us focused on what we needed to do. We are now parents ourselves yet we still needed our parents.

Mack totally went through the wringer - they had to do x-rays, 3 IV pricks (couldn't get any blood out of his veins), 2 catheters (couldn't get any urine the first time) and then a spinal tap. Jon & I had to hold him down for everything but the spinal tap - it was the worst thing ever. I would have done anything to keep Mack from going through that if it was possible. I just kept thinking in the back of my head, "He won't remember it, it'll be okay." Our family in the waiting room was probably about 50 yards away from his ER room and said they could hear him screaming the whole time. We opted not to stay in for the spinal tap and the doctor said Mack actually fell asleep during it.

So everything came back clear and still no real reason for the fever. They gave him antibiotics via IV and tylenol for fever - while we were there his fever came back to 101.8. They concluded that his head was probably just calcifying as normal but with the fever could only be 100% sure it wasn't something else unless they did the spinal tap.

Today he had another warm temp at Bon Bon's (his child care provider) - 100.0. I came home and he went straight to bed, I had to wake him up for a bath and bottle. The pedi's office is going to know us very well.