Trying to Remember: Elijah's First Fever and The Best Saturday Ever

Elijah had his first fever this weekend. It was very low, only about 100 degrees, but it was enough to make him a little whinier than usual. I think I know exactly where the fever came from, too. It wasn't too hard to figure out. I'll start from the beginning:

On Saturday we were out and about all day. Elijah woke up in a fantastic mood and it lasted all the way until bedtime. He took two fantastic naps (fell asleep independently and stayed asleep over an hour for each of them). We went to Costco, walked to the grocery store, went to the library, and finished the day in the backyard splashing in his inflatable baby pool. Elijah could have picked up the virus from any of those places, but I think I know exactly where it came from- the library. They have a little magnetic wall covered in letters. There was an almost-2-year-old little girl who was playing with the letters. Elijah crawled up to her and as her Mom asked her to pick out different letters, she handed them to Elijah. Of course, he grabbed them and shoved them in his mouth. Of course I wondered how many other children had touched/mouthed those letters, and how often they sanitize them, but I'm not really one to be overly cautious about germs. There's no way I can keep Elijah from putting everything in his mouth, so my strategy is to just let him go for it and build up his immune system. This time, I paid the price. But I have to say that whatever virus he got was extremely mild. One does of ibuprofen and his fever was gone and he was mostly back to his normal, playful self. It was pretty cute to watch Elijah play with the little girl. And her Mom was so impressed with my interaction with her, she asked Daniel if I was a teacher! He told her that no, I was a scientist, but I just love being a Mom. Which is the absolute truth.

Where's Elijah?

Elijah ate 5 strawberries on Saturday!

I went to sleep on Saturday night feeling like I just lived out my perfect day. Nothing extraordinary happened. It was just perfect. Little to no whining from Elijah, good naps that were nicely spaced through the day, some fun outings with the family, some time in the backyard with beautiful weather that was just hot enough to be comfortable in a bathing suit, and ending the day by rocking my beautiful baby boy until he was just falling asleep and then giving him a kiss and putting him in bed.

Sunday and Monday was spent holding/cuddling/rocking all day long. Sunday morning Daniel thought he felt a little warm. He didn't eat any of his breakfast. He was just sitting on Daniel's lap without babbling or moving at all really. We took his temperature a few times, and it was around 100 degrees. We gave him some ibuprofen and held him on our laps for a long time. We also rocked him to sleep a few times. He took horrible naps in the morning, 2 naps each 30 minutes long, but then in the afternoon he slept for 2 hours. I was actually able to re-settle him halfway through and he went back to sleep for another hour. That rarely works, but thank goodness it did because he really needed the sleep. We really didn't leave the house at all on Sunday. It was the first time we've missed church in probably 6 weeks. But we didn't want to expose other children to Elijah's virus and we didn't really feel comfortable leaving him with the lady in the nursery there. Last week, when he was healthy, he didn't like being left there. So I didn't think it would go well when he wasn't feeling well.

Monday I woke up in a horrible mood, and I think Elijah did too. His morning naps were awful again. For both of them we had to rock him to sleep and then when we tried to put him down and leave the room, he would wake up and start screaming. Then he would finally fall asleep, only to wake up screaming 30 minutes later. I was beginning to think he might be having separation anxiety. One day last week he started to cry when I kissed him goodbye at school, but he was easily comforted by Miss Justine (I seriously love his teachers). After his second awful nap, I sat in his dark room and rocked him for 45 minutes. He just laid there in my arms. I couldn't see if his eyes were open or closed, but it's rare for him to be content just laying in my arms for long periods of time while he's awake. Once in a while he would reach his arm up and grab my nose really hard with his fingers. He shoved his fingers up my nose and in my mouth, pulled at my lips, and squeezed my nose hard. It was like he was trying to figure out what that huge bump was on my face! I had to try really hard to keep myself from laughing out loud. Finally I put him in his crib and crept out of his room. But he started crying so we finally gave up. It was kind of nice to be able to just hold and rock him for so long, but also frustrating that he wouldn't go to sleep. Thank goodness that afternoon we were able to just put him down and leave and he fell asleep on his own, and stayed asleep for 2 hours. I really hope this isn't the beginning of separation anxiety.

This is how you know he's really tired- he starts shaking his head to keep himself awake.

We did have some bright moments in those days. Elijah tried chicken for the first time. I had to kind of trick him into eating it, but he did eventually eat it. The first time I hid it between pieces of banana on his tray. The second time I put pieces on the spoon with pureed sweet potatoes. I really enjoyed all the extra cuddles I got from him. And the feeling that he still needed his mama. He started saying the syllable "na-na-na" this weekend. And he stood for a solid second on his own! There are a few aspects of his personality that are really coming out- he loves to move, and he is very extroverted. All we have to do to make him happy is take him out somewhere, or to school where there are lots of people, and he is happy. He definitely gets that from his Daddy.