Last weekend, Harlo started acting not quite herself. I couldn’t decide if it was her teeth, or if she was really coming down with something.. well by Sunday she started feeling warm and by Sunday evening she was having a full-blown, shivering, cold chill fever. This was a “mothering first” for me, I’ve never had to tend to a fever before, so I was super nervous. Luckily our doctors office has a night clinic that I was able to call and make sure I was doing everything right. By Tuesday her fever was still at 104, so they said to bring her in. He said it was probably the flu, but if she was still fevering that high by Thursday, bring her in to check for infection. She would not eat a SINGLE thing, and was throwing up mostly any liquids she drank. The entire week she (or Brady or I, for that matter) never slept longer than an hour stretch. On Thursday her fever spiked up to 104.5 and they said to definitely bring her in for a catheter to check for a UTI or kidney infection. It was awful! Luckily it was really quick, and I think it may have been harder on me than it was on Harlo. My baby was such a big girl! She layed so still and was so brave. Still makes me tear up thinking about it. Her urine did show signs of infection, so they gave her a shot to jump start the antibiotic. Poor Harlo, it was such a tough day. I always say that my first week of motherhood was the hardest one yet, but after last week.. I may be changing my tune. There is absolutely NOTHING harder than having a sick baby and not being able to do a thing about it.
A few days later, they called back with the results that it was definitely a kidney infection, so I was so glad I took her in. Her antibiotic had kicked in and Sunday she started eating again. Today has been the first day she’s really acted back to her normal, silly self.
Harlo has so many people who love her so much, we’ve had so many friends and family calling to check on her and sending their prayers. We appreciate everyone’s help getting through the week, it was definitely a tough one! Uncle Richard (my boss) made sure I wasn’t worried about coming in to work and would call and check on Harlo daily, Nana Ruth… there is not enough words to say about this lady, but what would we do without her? On top of her calls and prayers, she made sure we had dinner and that Harlo had coloring books and things to do in bed, she came to give me a break and cleaned my house, we are just so SO lucky to have her. She had all sorts of Aunties calling to check on her and provide me with moral support. Of course Pops is always there to lend a helping hand, running whatever errands I needed. Most of all, Harlo has THE best Daddy. I seriously don’t know how we lucked out with him. He had been up all night, thrown up on, had to get up early for work, brought us (me) lunch everyday and managed to get out of work wherever he could to be home with us. I really try to never take for granted how helpful Brady is, how supportive he is of us. I know that not all dads or husbands are like that and I always, always try to make sure he feels appreciated. Not only do I not know how I would do any of this without him, I would never want to.
I’m feeling very blessed these days, and EXTREMELY blessed that my baby is back to normal. It was actually a good refresher to how demanding a newborn is, up in the night, liquid diet… maybe this happened at this time for a reason. =)