a cinco de mayo scare

On Thursday night, Lauren started refusing the majority of each bottle. She's always been a sipper; the opposite of Cayleigh who was notorious for the vacuum she'd create after attacking a bottle at feeding time. This time however, she flatly refused to eat much more than the first few sips. No big deal, I thought... she probably just had a growth lull or stomach ache (though she sure didn't seem to show it).

Friday morning, Becca took her to the doctor. He sent her home with instructions to keep an eye on her. Again, no big deal I figured.

By the time I came home from work, Lauren had developed a low-grade fever. She acted normally - smiling occasionally, following motion as she has been, without lethargy. We decided again to keep an eye on her and grabbed a bite to eat at a local restaurant.

By the time Cayleigh was down for the night, Becca had alerted the doctor's office's on-call nurse that Lauren's fever had increased above 101. What seemed small to me turned into a very long weekend. We were instructed to take Lauren to the emergency room. Over a 101 degree fever?

At 3:00 AM on cinco de mayo after several hours in an E.R. triage, her tests had been taken and she was admitted to the hospital for a minimum of 48 hours as standard procedure. We were informed she could either have a simple "wait it out" virus or a deadly bacterial infection. I learned about the dangers of infection for infants under 2 months. At just over six weeks old, Lauren was just shy of the immune-system development hump so I learned.

After our weekend in the hospital watching our little one with an IV attached to a brick on her arm, she was released with many sighs of relief.

Now I don't really wonder why Becca takes Lauren's temperature throughout the day. In about two weeks I guess I'll get over some of my new-found paranoia.



- Scott