Under the Weather

Note: This is an EXTREMELY long post! I completely understand if you want to just browse through the few pics and call it good.

DAY 1: Wednesday

Riley woke up and was feeling warm Wednesday morning. So I gave her some Tylenol, put her in bed with her daddy, and finished getting ready for work.

Typically if Riley does have a fever, it's a low grade one. She's had several like this. And one dose of Tylenol and a good nap usually does the trick.

Not this time. Oooooh no.

I got a call from Tammy about 3:30 that afternoon. She's got another fever of 100.8. Tammy gave her more Tylenol. I scheduled an appt. with her pediatrician and picked her up about 4 PM.

Oh, and by the way, we're in a tornado watch.

Which is wonderful, I love severe weather!

Not!

We arrive at the doctor's office. She weighs 19 lbs 12 oz. Fever is gone. Right ear is infected, left ear has fluid. Chest and throat are clear. The nurse gives Riley shot of Rocephin and we're on our way home. Whew. Glad that's taken care of.

Oh yeah.... remember that tornado watch?

Well, it turned into a tornado warning.

And then a tornado... this one here was just east of Stillwater, at the intersection of I-35 and Hwy 51:

http://mikescantlinwx.blogspot.com/2009/02/may-24th-tornadoes-nc-ok.html

As soon as the Mike Morgan said, storm capable of producing a tornado heading due east toward Stillwater, I went into Mommy-mode... made 3 bottles of formula, packed food and water, diapers and wipes, blankie and toys, and extra clothes for Riley.

Ryan decides we need to load up and head south a little to Perkins and just wait it out. We stop at a gas station with a large parking lot just off of the highway.

You wouldn't believe how many cars are here, doing the same thing. I bet there were over 100. Just parked, listening to the radio, and watching the storm.

Very Oklahoma. Very.

This proves to be a good plan, except while we're down there, another tornado pops up in Carney, south of there. And Guthrie, just east of there.

Just Great.

So, now our game plan is to wait just long enough for the tornado to pass through Stillwater, then head back north so that the Guthrie tornado doesn't catch us here in Perkins.

We drive through town when we get back to Stillwater. The damage isn't overly significant- mostly trees chewed up and spit back out, but it doesn't appear to be too much residential damage - no houses leveled, thank goodness. Just a lot of cleanup. It could have been much, much worse.

When we get home, Riley is fussy and acts tired so we put her down for a quick nap, she's had a rough day anyway. When she wakes up, though, she feels like she's on fire. We take her temp. and its over 102. I call my mom to see if that's cause for alarm. But she assures me that I don't need to worry until it gets over 103.

30 minutes later her temp is 103. So I tell my husband that I don't care if they just give her more medicine and send her home, I'm taking her to the ER. (It's 9 PM now)

We only live a stone's throw away from the hospital. It's honestly less than a minute away. Which is so, so convenient when you have a baby. In fact, I personally drove myself to the hospital when my water broke. Riley's pediatrician, the drug stores... all in the same area.

Anyway, we get there, check in, and wait. Wait. WAIT.

An hour later, we get in, answer some questions, then are led to a room. To wait some more, of course.

30 minutes later, they give her some Motrin, recheck everything that the pediatrician checked earlier that day, and send us home about 10:30 PM. Said the antibiotics haven't kicked in yet.

It was quite humorous to us when the nurse asked if we'd like to WAIT to have a receipt printed out for us.... ha, it still cracks me up! Efficiency is not on their to-do list, I guess. At least not in the ER. That is very comforting....

So I wasted an hour and a half and $25, but I was able to sleep that night.

Kind of.

DAY 2: Thursday

Riley woke up at 3 and was burning up again. More Tylenol. Ryan and I decide that I better stay home with her and give her the love and care that only mommy's can provide. Plus, I was exhausted and Riley and I slept till 7 AM. Thank goodness.

But when she woke up the second time that morning, she was still burning. Motrin this time.

One thing I did learn from her ER visit is that you can alternate Motrin and Tylenol for babies- one filters through the kidneys and the other through the liver- so as long as you wait long enough between doses of the same medicine, it is okay, and you don't have to worry about giving your baby too much.

The rest of the day pretty much played out the same. She just didn't feel well and it was so hard to watch. She hardly ever sits still and is squirmy all of the time, but all she wanted to do was have me hold her and lay on my chest. I felt so bad for her.

I talked with Ryan the night before about Riley getting tubes in her ears. We both agreed that it would definitely be a good option for Riley and would hopefully take care of the ear infections. So, I called the office and scheduled an appt for a consult.

Another thing was, I have been hearing her make this weird sound the last two days. I attributed this *sound* to her having an overly stuffed nose and congested chest. It was like a scratching noise... But anyway, I thought to myself, "I wonder if she has a tooth?" Sure enough, there is one just poking through, on the top, one of her front teeth! We're up to 3 now! :-) The noise was her scraping her bottom teeth with her top one!

So I immediately went get her a cold teether out of the freezer, and man, did that ever make her happy! Finally, a happy girl!

Ryan made it home from work, we grilled some porkchops for supper, and then went to check on the cows.

We had such a good time outside (it was a gorgeous evening!) and the cows all looked good... Riley was feeling much better... a happy ending for the day!

Riley was scared of the cows at first!

Drivin' around the pasture with Daddy

Moo!

Beautiful sky!

I still can't believe my cell phone took that good of pictures. I forgot my camera but had my phone on me of course!

We got back home later on, gave Riley a bath and was getting her ready for bed, when we realized she was warm again and had another low-grade fever. Gave her Tylenol and a bottle and put her to sleep.

DAY 3: Friday

She slept till 3 AM and woke with another fever. Basically another repeat of the day before. Mommy stayed home again. A inactive, sad baby, who wants nothing but to be held and comforted. More medicine and a few hours of relief and happiness. Then more fever.

Riley getting some much needed rest

As the instructions from the ER were to wait 48 hours from the initial dose of antibiotics, and if the fever persists, to call the doctor's office again . Well, I'd say it's being persistent alright.

They have me bring Riley back in for another checkup. Her ear shows no improvement. So the doctor recommends getting two more shots, one today, and one tomorrow. Yuck! However, this should kick the livin' snot out of the infection (literally!), so we'll try it! Beats having an ear infection and constant fever!

The rest of the evening was pretty good for Riley. She had another 101 temp. around 5PM, but with some Motrin, seemed to have a pretty good evening nonetheless. She crashed just after8 PM... such a tired girl!

We're off to the doctor's again tomorrow morning for the last shot. Not sure what this weekend has in store for us. We already missed one wedding today, and I have a wedding shower tomorrow for my cousin Sara, and a graduation reception for my cousin Taylor on Sunday. I hope my little girl gets to feeling better! And that next week is better...