One Sick Baby, ie What Do We Do?!

Saturday morning, Alaina woke up feeling feverish. She had a pretty high temperature and a runny nose, but she was acting okay so we just gave her some Tylenol and didn't think too much about it. By the afternoon, her temperature was down and she was playing and laughing with Brad like normal. We thought the worst was over.

As I was getting Alaina ready for bed Saturday night, I noticed some puffy red bumps on her stomach. It looked like some kind of rash. Brad and I went over everything we'd given her to eat during the day and couldn't think of anything she hasn't had before. We'd been careful to give her food she likes because she hadn't been feeling well. Still, despite the rash, Lainy was acting fine so we decided to put her in bed for the night.

It was a long night. I spent it on the floor of Lainy's room because she wouldn't sleep unless I was right by her. She scratched and fussed every few minutes.

At 5 am I woke up Brad and we proceeded to examine our little baby. The puffy red bumps had spread all over her body and swollen her eyes half closed. It about broke my heart to look at her! But still, once she was awake, she didn't act sick. Her temperature hadn't returned and she was talking and walking around like normal.

We decided to watch her. If her temperature got worse or she started acting weird, we'd take her to the ER. If not, we'd wait and take her to the Urgent Care clinic when they opened at 1:00.

We arrived at the Urgent Care center about five minutes after they opened and were shocked by the huge line inside. Everyone in Moscow must have been sick yesterday! We ended up waiting for over an hour, watching as Alaina's rash got worse and worse and her temperature returned.

Finally, it was our turn. The doctor took one look at Alaina and said, "Whoa! That's quite a rash". (Something you never want to hear from a doctor when you don't know what's going on with your baby and you're hoping he does.) He did some tests, asked us a lot of questions, and sent us away saying: "I don't know what's causing her rash. It might be something viral. Give her some Benadryl and if it gets any worse, take her to the ER".

After that helpful advice, we took Alaina home, gave her the Benadryl, and all went to sleep. We slept for a couple of hours and it was just what we all needed. When we woke up, Lainy's rash looked ten times better.

She's continued to improve, though she still looks so sad! She slept pretty well last night and this morning she looked even better. Here are some pictures of her this morning.
Throughout this whole ordeal, Brad and I just felt so awful! It was hard to watch our poor sick baby and not really know what to do for her. Last night as we got into bed, Brad said, "It's a good thing I'm going to be a doctor because I just can't stand feeling so helpless when our baby is sick". I have to admit, I agree!