Today is day 4 of Shriya's first fever. Her pediatrician assures me that its all a part of her growing up. But its so hard to watch her get fevers as high as 104F every 3-4 hours.
It's true that babies just develop fevers rather suddenly. Shriya was her usual playful self all day, and just after her noon nap she wakes up and clings on to me. Totally refused her food/favorite snacks/milk and just wanted me to carry her around. Her body temperature slowly rose up and she started to go weak and rested her head on my shoulder. Its so hard to watch her slow down.
Just a couple of days earlier she learnt to pout when I say 'mouth' and stick her tongue out as well when I say tongue! I was quite thrilled to see her identify parts of her body and took pictures and videos and shared them with my family.
Coming back to her fever, the doc believes its probably a simple viral fever (Roseola) and will need to wait out 4-5 days for it to subside. Until then, her appetite is low ...less playful... wants me to carry her around... and needs medication nearly every 3-4 hours!
As always there's always a lot of advice that comes from my mom and in-laws! Give her milk ...don't her give her milk... blah blah. And the doc says give her anything she wants! I just wish Shriya can clearly spell out what she wants or the least I understand her babble!
In any case, Shriya is at my mercy now...and I give her a bit of everything and she eats 'a bit' of everything. I try giving her a lot of freshly strained juices (cranberry, raisins, prunes, apple, pear), vegetable clear soups, plain rice cereal (without milk) mixed in juices, plain wheat cereal (without milk) and her formula. She hates water, but I do try and feed her a couple of spoons now and then. She needs food almost every hour...n I guess that's coz I feed her in small portions. Tried feeding her a usual portion and it all came right out in a short while! I am amazed on her clear refusal of taking food that she doesn't like or if shes full... simply swings her arms all around until she successfully topples the bowl and spoon I'm clutching.
Another change in the last 4 days has been sleep deprivation.. I know that comes along with being a mommy, but now I loose almost all sleep at night (and day!). Besides monitoring her temperature every few hours and getting her feed every couple of hours, she gets listless as the fever increases and starts to toss and turn and wake up... and needs comforting or sponge baths. Ofcourse there are sessions of food coming right out on your face... so that's more cleaning up while everyones asleep, I roam around with a mop & cloth in hand. I just finished one session of feeding, diaper change & mopping.. while my husband and Shriya are asleep, I needed a good cup of coffee and here I am at the computer.
Managed to steal some time out to make this entry... I'm hoping Shriya feels better today.
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