My First Scare

Esteban left yesterday to Honduras. I was home alone with Jayden and it was my first night. He gave me quite a scare. Last night, he got really cranky, but it was unusual. Not his normal, I'm sleepy cranky. I decided to give him some Tylenol and then I took his temp because he felt a little warm. Rectally, it was 100.7. Good thing for Tylenol. Then when I fell asleep, he kept crying through the night. I would go to his room, rub his back and then he would drift back to sleep. Around 3am, I went to his room and he was burning up. Whoa! Red flag! It was my first time finding him with a burning fever. My radar went off! How could this happen? Esteban isn't even home to help me with this.

At first, I thought what should I do? What should I do? Ok, slow down. Think. He couldn't breathe through his nose so I tried the aspirator, which he was not having. He hates that thing. Then I reached for the Tylenol, but decided to give him Motrin instead. I remembered when my girlfriend's son got sick she was told to alternate Motrin and Tylenol to break the fever. I brought him to my room with me and sat up with him till around 4:30. He still had a fever but it was down slightly. I didn't re-temp, but I could feel that he wasn't as warm. Thank goodness for those baby books. I have the "What to Expect" book for the 1st year and I have the "What to Expect from Birth to 5 Years" book from the National Academy of Pediatrics. I turned to fever and said keep the baby hydrated so I got him some juice. It also said to sponge the baby if you can't get the fever to break in an hour with Tylenol or Motrin. I didn't wait the hour. I got a towel and moistened it with warm water and put it on his forehead and his neck. I had thought about alcohol since that's what mom used to do with us, but the book said NO alcohol. It makes the fever worse and the smell can be harmful to infants. It also made me more relaxed when I started to read and see that most of the hype around high grade fevers is for babies under 2 months or babies less than 6 months. Since Jayden is one year old, I was able to relax and try to take care of it instead of thinking, OMG, I have to rush him to the hospital.

He eventually fell asleep, thank you God and I just checked him and his fever is gone. Thank Goodness I have a doctor appt for him today. It is supposed to be his 12 month appt. Right now, I'm happy that Esteban wasn't home or he would have been freaking' out and driving me crazy.

Lockdown for Jayden

I bought a baby gate over the weekend to keep Jayden in his room. Is that bad? He drives me bonkers which his toys all over. I feel like all the cleaning and picking up I do is for nothing because he's close on my heels with a new trail of toys behind him. Not only does me make messes all over, but he falls down and hurts himself all the time. (He's still learning how to walk and there's no carpet, only tiles. Ouch!) Plus he tries to put everything he finds in his mouth, including Rio's dog hairs! His room is childproof, but he always follows me to wherever I go. Now with the gate, I am able to keep him safe, he makes all the mess he wants in his room and I can get some chores done around the house. Golly, never thought that day would come where I would lock my son in his room at the age of ONE! Hehe