I'm Supposedly De-Germifying My House...

Among other things. Instead I'm taking a break from the Lysol 4-in-1 cleaner and Clorox fumes and blogging at you about the reasons for the de-germifying. For the record, I *have* cleaned both bathrooms (which were really gross, btw, even though I swear I just cleaned them on Monday. How do bathrooms get so gross so fast? Hmm, on second thought, maybe I cleaned them *last* Monday). I've also put a load of sheets in the washing machine. So I'm not being a total bum.

So, anyway... oh yeah. Reasons for de-germifying. Because the Max has been very, very sick for most of this week. You already know (scroll down to my last post) that Max hasn't really eaten much of anything for over a week. That trend continues. But there's a reason for it, and that reason is because he's sick. Max never eats when he's sick.

Remember that checkup Max was supposed to have? Well, it turned into a sick baby appointment instead (but the doctor assured me that, at his age, as long as Max is making some attempt to communicate verbally, he is fine. No need to obsess over how many words are in his vocabulary). Monday evening, the Max started running a fever. Nothing crazy, but a fever nonetheless. Then Tuesday morning, I was awakened by a screaming baby with a 103.5 degree fever at 5 a.m. Gah. So, I called and changed his appointment from a well-baby checkup to a sick appointment, and proceeded to alternate doses of Tylenol and ibuprofen every three hours. Went to doc, Max had an upper respiratory infection (aka a cold) and an ear infection (because that's what happens to Max when he gets a bad cold). Got some antibiotics (not penicillin, though, 'cause he's allergic) and a steroid cream for this pesky rash he's had for a while.

Came home from doctor's appointment, Max took a long nap, and when he woke up his fever was back, even though he had been taking one fever-reducing medication or another every 3 hours all day. I freaked out a little bit, and I wouldn't let him go to bed until I established that his temperature was going down again. After sleeping for ~4 hours, Max woke up. With a temperature of 104.2 degrees. Ahhh! So I stayed up with him for about two hours or so, trying to get the fever down, which pretty much consisted of giving him Tylenol and sponging him with lukewarm water (which he HATED). I'd put him to bed in nothing but a diaper, so I couldn't really remove any more clothing. When his temperature dropped 2 degrees, I finally laid down on the couch with him. An hour after that, Max's fever finally broke. And two hours later, his temperature was back up over 103. Lather, rinse, repeat.

I called the pediatrician's office again and expressed my concerns over the crazy fever business. I was told that the trend would likely continue for at least another day, possibly two. They told me to keep doing what I was doing and not to worry excessively as long as Max was moving around and alert when he was awake and his temperature dropped at least a degree or so after giving him medicine (even if that meant his temperature was still over 102 degrees). So we continued with the alternate doses of Tylenol and ibuprofen every 3 hours and the nakedness. I put clothes on Max for about an hour on Wednesday, but his temperature started going up when I did, so he pretty much went naked for two days (well, naked except for a diaper).

Wednesday night: more of the same. Max woke up at 1 a.m. with a temperature of 104.4 degrees, and we went through our fever-reducing dance again, followed by crashing on the couch for a while. But this time, it was heavy rain that woke me up at 5:30 Thursday morning, and Max did not have a fever anymore. He did start running a low-grade fever later in the day, but it didn't concern me much, and he only had two doses of Tylenol all day. He didn't have a fever at bedtime last night, and his temperature was normal this morning. He was also very spunky this morning, heading for the blinds, followed by the dishwasher, first thing. He still didn't eat anything, but he did drink some milk.

I've accomplished absolutely nothing this week, what with the sick baby and all, so I sent Max to daycare today (with instructions for the teachers to call me immediately if he showed any signs that the fever was coming back) so I can rid the house of sick baby germs and possibly get a little work done. But sanitizing is the priority today.

Now, I must be off. Household surfaces are waiting for me to bleach the hell out of them.