Willowcreek Academy.
It was James' daycare. And you know a call from daycare in the middle of the day is not good news. I quickly clicked over and heard the Director on the other side of the phone tell me that James had a 104.1 fever and that I needed to get there ASAP.
104.1
That was the only thing that I heard.
Of course I grabbed my keys, raced to the car and flew to grab James. Luckily, the daycare center is just 3 minutes away so he was in my arms within 5 minutes. I couldn't believe how warm he was and how quickly it came on. He was screaming (naturally) and I did all I could to make him comfortable.
We were at the doctor 30 minutes later where she confirmed pretty much nothing. Ears were fine. Lungs were fine. His throat was red, but that was all she saw. She said it was viral so she sent us home with instructions to administer Motrin every 6 hours to bring the fever down and make him comfortable.
The minute we got home, I gave him the meds and laid him on my chest. He passed out immediately.
Over the course of the next 5 days his fever went up and down. He developed lots and lots of congestion and a wicked cough that kept him (and us) up at night. We spent lots of time in a steamy bathroom to help him breathe and we've used lots of saline drops to soothe his nose.
By Saturday morning, he was no longer taking his bottle or any other form of liquids and did not have a wet diaper in 8 hours. It was off to the hospital we went. We saw nurses and doctors, had a chest x-ray and dined on some Pedialyte. After 4 hours we left with a prescription for amoxicillan for his double ear infection and instructions to keep him hydrated and comfortable so that the RSV does not get worse.
It amazes me how hard this virus has hit him and how it has completely disrupted our lives. We had to take days off from work that weren't planned and had to get used to sleeping in 2-3 hour shifts - similar to when he was first born.
But through all this mayhem, there has been 1 silver lining. We got to slow down and snuggle with our little man. All he wants to do is lay on us or next to us and snooze. And that is all right in our book. We are hoping that this nasty virus leaves our house soon - especially since Santa is expected. But we do hope that our snuggly little guy sticks around.
