Written by: Caroline Ludwig
This year, my Mother’s Day started off with zero motherly responsibilities. We were in Lexington for a wedding and stayed the night in a hotel while the kids and dogs were in Cincinnati with my mom. I woke up without anyone trying to jump on me, I took a long shower (with no interruption), and enjoyed a continental breakfast with no toddlers attempting to eat my food before I did. I missed the kids dearly but enjoyed my morning just me and the hubs.
After we had packed up the room and were trying to find a place to brunch with Joe’s family I got a text from my mom saying that Elliot “felt warm”. When she took his temperature, it was around 99.5. I wasn’t too worried since it was only an elevated temperature and it just started to get warm outside. Even though I wasn’t yet too concerned, I knew we were too far from home. Plus, all of the brunch spots we found had a wait time over an hour long. Ultimately, we decided it was best to skip brunch and headed home.
The drive was uneventful. Joe did a great job getting us home quickly and I got to craft a bit during the drive. Throughout the trip, mom was updating me on Elliot and his temp was a little over 100 by the time we were in Cincinnati. We were met by little hugs when we got into the house and I could tell that Elliot wasn’t feeling too good. His eyes looked a little glassy, he was a little lethargic, and his forehead failed the kiss test. We got the run-down of the night from my mom and sent her home to get some rest. The sicky butt got a bath all to himself while I tried to distract Lilly and keep her away from Elliot. We are all about sharing but not when it comes to germs.
After Elliot’s bath, his temperature went higher and we tried to get some meds in him to start to control the fever. He wasn’t cooperating and refused to drink more than a few gulps of meds. In stark contrast, Lilly was at my shoulder asking if she could take the medicine that her brother didn’t want to take (spoilers, we told her “no” to her disappointment). In addition to not taking the medicine, Elliot didn’t want to eat much of anything either. We tried to feed him fruit pouches, water, milk, apple sauce, etc. He eventually fell asleep for his afternoon nap.
Despite our attempts, Elliot’s fever was only going up and he didn’t eat much dinner or any of his medicine. I called the doctor to discuss options and they gave me some alternative med delivery systems. We put on an episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse so we could talk strategy of who was going to go to the pharmacy and who would keep an eye on the kids and came up with a plan. Like all good plans, the children destroyed them. Elliot’s temperature raised a whole degree in less than 15 minutes so I was back on the phone with the doctor and, soon after, on my way to the Children’s Hospital Urgent Care in Clifton.
Joe stayed behind to put Lilly to bed. While this was going on, we were texting my mom updates on the situation and she offered to come back to our house to stay with Lilly. She just had to pack her things up first. After checking Elliot in, we picked out a couch and prepped for a long wait. Elliot clearly wasn’t feeling well because he wasn’t super squirmy like he normally is. I looked him over to make sure his pajamas were on right and noticed that his feet were a deep purple.
I haven’t seen this before, so I asked the grandma at the couch next to us if she thought this was normal. She did not and I rushed Elliot to the front desk to see if there was someone available to look at him. Fortunately, there was a nurse at the front desk. I explained what was going on and looked down at Elliot’s feet. They were a very light purple. He was making me look crazy. The nurse had seen this before and said that it was pretty common with a high fever because blood rushes to the core causing extremities to look purple. She asked if he had been medicated recently and I said no, that was why we were here. Then she offered to give him meds, which was the best news ever.
We went back to a room for a hot second to get some meds into Elliot’s tummy. Elliot tolerated our tricks to get him to take meds and we went back into the waiting room.
After several songs, an episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and some runs across the couch we were called back to a room of our own.
Five minutes later, Joe joined us and we started watching Phineas and Ferb on Disney+. Everyone was surprised Elliot was still awake. He wasn’t a fan of the popsicle they gave him, but did like his daddy snuggles. Elliot got some more medicine and his fever dropped to an acceptable level for us to go home. We were discharged soon before midnight so we didn’t have to spend the night at Children’s, but it was not even close to what we had planned to do to close out the night. Elliot wanted all of his mama’s attention on Mother’s Day and he found a way to get it.
Elliot’s fever stuck around for a few days and then went away. He’s doing a ton better and back to his usual antics of running around after his big sister, climbing all over the furniture, and napping up a storm.
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