Last week, Finny was up more than usual in the middle of the night. I tried to swipe my fingers inside her mouth and feel along the upper gum. In my attempts before her tongue and lips would push my fingers out, I thought that I felt her upper left gum was a little swollen. I knew that we were due for another bout of teething. If the two bottom teeth were standard for teething, I was dreading what was to come. Teething is something that they should warn you about during your pregnancy. "Oh and PS, if your 6-12 month old suddenly starts acting like s/he is possessed by a demon, don't worry -- it's just their teeth coming through." and also "If during teething, you start feeling like Bunny Foo-foo and want to start popping the heads off of field mice, put the baby down and slowly back away."
While we were at the "sledding" party, she started feeling pretty warm and by that evening, she had developed a fever. Maybe I'm a terrible mother, but I don't checked her temp anymore. She is too squirmy and I don't trust any of those ear or forehead thermometers to get an accurate reading. I can feel when she has a fever and if she isn't acting like herself, then I start paying attention and seek out the advice of the thermometers. But if she feels warm and is still acting just like my baby girl, I'm not going to grow that concerned. So by Saturday evening, she felt warm, but was still enjoying herself.
Sunday came and she felt slightly warm, but definitely cooler than the night before. We went about our weekend morning and she felt asleep in the car twice! She might fall asleep in the car if she hasn't had a nap, but she feel asleep within 3 minutes of being put in the hated carseat. We went home and she was a C.R.A.B.A.P.P.L.E. She didn't want to be put down and whenever I got her to sleep during a nap and tried to lay her down, she would wake up screaming, only quieted by Mama's arms. So I knew that she wasn't feeling well.
Sunday night, she seemed possessed. She woke up around midnight and didn't stop screaming until 3:30am. No joke. Mama was on sole duty because it was decided that I wasn't going to work the next day to take her to the doctor. We went into her room and rocked. We swayed. We went downstairs and rocked. We swayed. We bounced. We laid down sitting up. Nothing. Around 3am, Mama turned into Bunny Foo-foo and Daddy had to speak some reason. She finally tired herself and fell into an exhaustive sleep until late the next morning.
At the doctor's on Monday afternoon, I felt like one of those crazy moms who take their kid to the doctor every time they sneeze. When telling the nurse and the doctor her symptoms, they didn't sound like much. "She had a mild fever on Saturday into Sunday, but no fever today. She was up for three hours last night crying. She has a stuffy nose. And I think that she might be getting her top upper left tooth." I told the doctor that the last teeth that she got was accompanied by an ear infection and I didn't know if the symptoms during that episode (which were remarkably similar to the last 36 hours) were from the teeth or the ear infection. I felt silly being there, but my fears were warranted...
The poor girl had a raging ear infection in her right ear, a slight ear infection in her left along with some fluid back up from her sinuses, a mild sinus infection and is cutting her FOUR top teeth. The doctor seemed shocked at how "sick" Finny was and commented that she was such a good baby for being so sick. It's a double-edged sword being a good baby. Now make no mistake about it -- I'll take a good baby anyday of the week. But an outsider doesn't realize how sick she is when she actually is sick. If we didn't listen to our instincts and bring her in because she felt warm, was sleeping more and was fussy, the poor girl could have had that ear infection for a lot longer. We were given antibiotics and now pray that those four teeth come through quickly. They are at varying stages, so we are going to be teething for the next couple of weeks at least. The doctor had some recommendations on managing her pain, so hopefully she won't be a terror the whole time.
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