After I jinxed Tallulah at her 9 month appointment by saying that she had not been sick. Monday morning, she woke up with a runny nose. As the day progressed, she was playing and happy but upon waking up from her later nap, she had a fever of 101. We called the doctor and since it was later in the day, we had to see the on call doctor. He checked out Tallulah and she seemed fine but since she is so little, he wanted to do some blood tests etc. Unfortunately, everything was closed in Encinitas so he suggested we go to Children's hospital to the ER. This was not what we were expecting. It was the only way to get lab tests back right away but everyone knows that a trip to the ER is a long visit! At this time, it was Tallulah's bedtime. Poor thing!! We went home, feed her and got her in her pjs and put her in the car for the drive to Children's. The poor thing was falling asleep. We got to the ER and Aaron stayed with her outside because the ER was full of sick children, not a fun place at all!! I was on the brink of tears because it was such a miserable place to be for my little Tallulah.
We checked in and then the wait began. After about an hour, they called her name and did her vitals and she had a temperature of 102. She hated the rectal thermometer! They gave her infant Tylenol and then put us in a separate waiting room so we did not have to be with all the sick children. We then waited for another hour and she was so tired. Then they put us in a doctor's room and the doctor came in and checked her out. After that, the nurse came in and checked her temperature again (another rectal), the temperature had gone down to 100. Tylenol works fast! We then waited for the lab tech to draw her blood. It was 9:30 at this point.
As many of you know, Tallulah has stranger anxiety to men, other then Aaron. All night, we had wonderful women that she smiled and waved at, of course, the lab tech walked in and he is this big, burly man with not the most compassionate behavior. We were thinking "How did this guy end up taking blood from babies?". In case, you did not know, they take blood from babies arms, just like us. We had to lie her down and I had to hold her arm down while Aaron held her down. We thought it would be horrible but she did not mind at all. The blood and needle were fine, she just disliked the man taking it! She was so tough and did so great. Finally, after the blood was drawn, Tallulah was done and we got her wrapped up and put her in her car seat so she could sleep. We had to wait another hour for the lab results.
Finally, at 11:00pm, the doctor said everything was normal and we could go home. However, the nurse had to come in one more time to go over everything and check her vitals. Oh no!! Poor Tallulah had to be woken up again but at least this time the temperature was taken under her armpit but she hated the cold stethoscope.
Her temperature was normal so that was great. Yippee for Tylenol! After that, we drove home and when we got home, we took our little Tallulah out of her car seat and she was drenched in sweat. We changed her, gave her some more Tylenol and she went straight to bed and did not wake up until 7am this morning to eat. Her fever is gone but we are monitoring it. They say it may come back and go down again but that is normal.
We knew she had to get sick eventually!! To be honest, it was not that bad, it was actually fine. The part that was horrible was the ER. If we did not have to do that, it would have been easier. Tallulah was a trooper and is a tough baby. Here is a picture of her sleeping after her blood was taken.
Oh one more thing, another great thing about San Diego, is we have some of the best care in the nation for children. Children's hospital is an amazing place so we are very lucky not to mention that Scripps care is top as well.
