No Baby, But a Sick Meg

Meg hasn't been herself all day . . . I knew this morning that we were in for something, I just wasn't sure what. I think it's mom's intuition. I had a feeling something wasn't right, but I kept ignoring it and telling myself that I was crazy.

Late this morning, we headed out to Ikea with the idea that we could walk all over the store and enjoy the air conditioning. After a few hours of walking and a few Swedish meatballs, Jim, Meg, and I went (at the last minute and totally unplanned) to the Virginia Highlands Summerfest to meet Jim's sister for just a bit. The festival was HOT . . . fun, but just too hot for me and Meg. We were back home at about 4:30 . . . but, for the entire ride back to the house, Jim and I were a little worried that we'd over-heated Meg.

Meg had been OK most of the day . . . just really tired at Ikea and totally out of it at the festival. We attributed it to the fact that she had pretty much missed a nap entirely. I hate doing that to her . . . but for one day, we thought it would be OK. She didn't seem SICK.

But things didn't get better when she finally got some sleep. We thought she would recharge and cool off once we got home, but that was not the case.

She was scorching hot when she woke up from her late nap she took after we returned to the house. I gave her a cool bath (playing it up as 'the pool' with pool toys and everything) and gave her something to reduce her fever/body temperature. We weren't sure WHAT was making her so hot. Seriously, I've never felt the kid so on fire.

By dinner, she was back to her smiley self. Not eating much . . . but playing and coloring and giggling. Her fever was gone . . . so was our worry.

Then, at 9:30pm, I heard a cough from her bedroom. I knew.

She had gotten sick all over her bed. I cleaned her, Jim cleaned the bed . . . and then I proceeded to freak out because her exceedingly hot body temperature was back. A temp of 103.1 in her ear and under her arm. I packed a bag for the emergency room.

Now -- I realize, this may sound a bit like an overreaction. But, please keep in mind that Meg has NEVER EVER had a fever like that. I have barely had to use the thermometer. Most fevers have been teething related . . . she didn't even run a fever when she had her one-and-only ear infection. And, yeah, my hormones are raging since I'm about to give birth any minute now. So, what might have been a regular old sick-kid-situation was, to me, a desperate lets-take-her-to-the-ER scenario.

I calmed down and called Egleston Children's Hospital. The nurse gave us good info . . . and she assured me that her illness was NOT related to the heat we'd experienced at the festival earlier in the day. I was so worried that Meg was having some kind of heat stroke or heat-related reaction. I thought I had done this to our darling baby. The nurse's guess was that Meg was probably already coming down with something earlier in the day (which made me feel worse for stealing her nap from her) and that she was most likely just fine.

We gave Meg some more Tylenol, let her watch some Go Diego Go, and then rocked her to sleep. It's nearly midnight now . . . nearly 2 hours since the puking and nearly one hour since she's been asleep. I hope we are in the clear. She's still hot to the touch, so I'm going to give her more medicine at 2am. Hell, I'm up half the night peeing anyway . . . so it won't be an issue. (I doubt I'll sleep much tonight, anyway.)

I did call my dad around 11pm to give him the report, and he was so sweet. He could tell how upset I was -- the crying gave it away, I guess. He kept reassuring me that this was NOT life-or-death and that I was probably reacting so strongly because of my 'condition.' He's right. I needed to hear it. It made me feel a lot better.

I swear to you -- EVERYTHING happens for a reason. What if I had gone into labor with Kate yesterday or sometime today? Then someone else would be handling my sick Meg . . . and that would totally kill me. I'd hate for her to have to rely on the comfort of someone other than mom or dad.

I can honestly say now that I am OK with Kate's delay . . . it happened for a reason, and now I know why.

More tomorrow . . . hopefully about an all-better Meg. And maybe about a soon-to-arrive Kate.