The Millers: Back so Soon?

We had a bit of a scare with Emma Ann last week. It all started on Thursday morning. She woke up for her normal middle of the night feeding around 2:45 and then I woke up on my own at 7:45 - that's two hours past when she should have woken me up to eat. I had to wake her up to eat this time. I didn't think too much of it - really, I counted it as a blessing. As the morning went on, I continued to have to wake her to eat. During the times that she was awake, I felt like her breathing was labored and that she was just having to work at taking a breath. A part of me thought maybe I was just over-reacting and maybe she had always been a heavy breather and I was just noticing. I took her temperature (using our temporal thermometer - the one you swipe across the forehead) and it was normal.

Matt had taken Hannah Cate and Maddie down to Orange Beach that morning so that they could spend the night at Nini and Da's house. When he got home, I pointed EA's breathing out to him to see what he thought. He agreed that she seemed a little off. After adding in the other factors of having to wake her to eat and her general lethargy - I decided it couldn't hurt to call the pediatrician to see what they thought. They called me back within about 5 minutes and said that given her age (8 days old) that it would be a good idea to bring her in. We made an appointment for a couple of hours later.

By the time our appointment rolled around EA was back asleep and her breathing seemed a little better. Matt even mentioned that maybe we didn't really need to take her, but we decided we would feel better to get the green light from them. Matt was so certain that they were going to say it was nothing that he just waited in the car while I ran in with EA.

They weighed her and then the nurse took her temperature (rectally this time). I was standing at her head holding her so she wouldn't squirm. I glanced at the thermometer and watched the numbers start to climb right past 98.6. The rising finally stopped at 102.5. I couldn't stop the tears from falling from my eyes. I was scared. I knew whatever was coming next from the doctor wouldn't be good. I'm a mess at this point and my cell phone was dead so I couldn't call Matt and ask him to come in. I take EA (only in her diaper and wrapped in a blanket) and walk out to the parking lot to get Matt. I can only imagine the fear he felt when he saw me standing at the car door, holding our baby, with tears streaming down my face.

We went back in together to talk to the doctor and find out what to do next. The doctor finally came in to do an exam on Emma Ann and talk to us. There were not any obvious signs of what might be wrong (throat and ears were clear). Fever that high in an infant less than a month old is not good and they always want to err on the side of caution. Dr. Wiggins started throwing out things that could be wrong like "bacterial meningitis", "sepsis" and "fatal in infants of her age" and the rest of our time at the pediatrician became a bit of a blur to me. Though it was likely that she had the same fever virus that HC and Maddie had the week before, they had to be cautious since EA was so young. Being cautious involved some scary things - a catheter, spinal tap and a three day stay in the hospital (so much for that 18 month appointment, I certainly didn't think we would be back there so soon).

They did the catheter (to collect a urine sample) and spinal tap at the pediatrician. Then they gave us the samples and sent us over to the hospital to be admitted. The nurses and doctors would monitor EA and the hospital lab would monitor her urine and spinal cultures to make sure there was no bacterial growth. No bacterial growth would indicate a virus that would just have to run its course.

By the time we were admitted and the cultures made it to the lab, it was about 4:00 on Thursday afternoon. Our first results from the lab would come in 24 hours later. They took her away to start an IV that would give her fluids and two different rounds of antibiotics. Her fever continued to rise, getting as high as 105 early Friday morning. They were treating her fever with Tylenol, but it only brought temporary relief and never actually broke the fever. She cried out every time she moved or you touched/moved her because she was so achy from the fever. Between Thursday and Friday, I think we calculated that she had been awake for a total of 30 minutes tops. Those first 24 hours were the worst. Between worrying about her fever being so high, worrying about the cultures and whether there might be some bacterial infection brewing and just generally feeling bad that she was hurting - it was a hard day.

We got our first bit of good news on Friday afternoon when we saw Dr. Wiggins. Her cultures were not showing any bacterial growth and even though the results wouldn't be final until they had been monitored for 72 hours - that was a good sign! It was looking more and more like she had a viral infection. At 48 hours, we got the same news - no growth. Now our goal was to get her fever down so that we could go home.

By Sunday morning, she had been under 100.4 for 24 hours and they let us go home. She still wasn't back to her normal self - but we could tell that she was starting to feel better. I've never been so glad to be back home in all my life. I was so worn out mentally and emotionally, plus I missed Hannah Cate and Maddie so much. Even though we were greeted by some whines and fighting over toys - I was so glad to be back together again as our family of 5.