I'm sure all of you were checking your calendars and scratching your heads on March 3rd wondering, "Isn't today Theo's birthday? Did Sam. . .FORGET? Or furthermore, does she even CARE? I mean, a kid's second birthday seems to be a pretty big deal but hey, who knows about her and her crackpot parenting skills. That poor poor neglected child. And Bryan, having to manage everything himself. Tsk tsk tsk."
But oh, my friends, you would be wrong. For we had Grand Plans for March 3rd. Bryan and I were going to go into Theo's room that morning singing Happy Birthday (his favorite song, btw), there was a party planned at daycare, and that evening we were going to take him to his beloved 2 Toots restaurant for a special dinner. Grandma was going to come over with presents! It was going to be sensational! (Are you catching the whole past tense there? Yeah.)
Instead Theo had a 102.6 fever with severe cough Tuesday night and was up multiple times. We scored a doctor's appointment the morning of his birthday that landed us two inhalers (he was wheezing) and a diagnosis of "It's just a virus. This is the sickest he should be, so you should be good to go for his party on Saturday. If he has a fever by Sunday give us a call." Okay doc! So instead, we had a very feverish and lethargic little two year old who only wanted to lay on the couch and watch Lady and the Tramp.
Daycare lady did come over with the troops and dropped off his present and cupcakes which was awesome, but the poor chicken was feeling too icky to really have any fun. They didn't stay long, of course, but after they left I was putting him down for a nap and he felt WAY warm. So I checked his temperature again. 103.6. Children's Motrin was officially put on notice because dude, that's going UP not DOWN.
The next day was spent mostly like this:
His fever would go down but never fully away, and his cough was awful. He'd still have moments of playfulness, but he was still laying on the couch a lot with me which is highly unusual, as this child Never Stops Moving Or Talking.
Friday we each had hair appointments in preparation for the party on Saturday and he had a good night and woke up with a low-grade fever. My mom had planned on watching him all day Friday so I could get the house ready. Well, around 12:30 his fever spiked to 103.5 again so we went back to the doctor. Calls had already been made to cancel the party, and at this point I was getting worried. At the pediatrician he was tested for Strep and Flu both of which he did not have. His lungs sounded a little better but she did not like that his fever had never fully gone down below 100 even with the Motrin and Tylenol. So we were ushered off to Urgent Care for chest x-rays to rule out pneumonia, which made my butt clench because the thought of having to hold my child down to get those x-rays was the last thing on earth I wanted to do. And then I was thinking, "Well, do we HOPE it's pneumonia? Because that way we'd get antibiotics and he'd be on the road to recovery. But if he doesn't have it then YEAH! it's still just a virus that we need to ride out but then he won't be on anything. GAH GAH GAH." The doctor also informed us that if he had any smidge of a fever AT ALL on Monday we needed to bring him in for a battery of tests as a fever over seven days is not really a good thing. So that was looming in front of us as well. At this point, turning two wasn't anything we had told Theo it would be.
Luckily we had the most amazing x-ray technician in the history of ever and the whole thing was almost enjoyable. There were stuffed monkeys and extra special gowns only big boys get to wear and hey, let's take a fancy robot picture and look at this huge machine with all these buttons that blink! When we were done Theo was blowing her kisses and I wanted to marry her.
He didn't have pneumonia so we just kept doing what we were doing with the breathing treatments and Motrin. Saturday he turned a corner and maintained a lower fever while getting some of his appetite back. He was playing more. Things looked good. But for those of you not familiar with toddlers who have been super sick and suddenly start to feel better, let me just say they are unlike any living thing you have ever dealt with in your life. Bi-Polar doesn't even begin describe their range of emotions. Theo had been catered to for five days straight and now that he was feeling better we were less relaxed about some house rules. Needless to say this did not go over well. So the combination of him being sick and starting to feel better, not getting everything he wanted AND turning two was quite the Trifecta Of Awesome.
We all made it out the other side, and he's doing great now. Bryan and I have caught up on our sleep and the house isn't collapsing under its own filth anymore. We even managed to reschedule the party for his past Saturday and had a great time. Coincidently, there will still be a birthday montage for our amazing boy, along with a post dedicated to him and his past year--that is something that may be late, but never forgotten. I think I will declare this next week to be his Internet Birthday Week since he got the shaft while being sick. But as of today, he is quite back to normal.
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In other exciting news, I am now writing over at Craftastrophe--I post every Wednesday and I'd love for you to come on over and say hello! My first post from last week is here and Wednesday I got into the St. Patrick's Day spirit. Come join the fun.
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