Baby has a fever and is not himself today

Today is definitely an off day for the baby. Even when he experienced his first cold, he was still playing and getting himself into trouble. He woke up with a fever this morning and went to bed tonight with a fever as well. I started to give him Tylenol in the late morning. For most of the day, he has been very mellow and sleepy. He barely ate anything for lunch but lucky he did eat at dinner.

He normally cat naps twice a day for about 15-20 minutes each time but today, he slept on and off starting from 1PM. He slept for maybe 30 minutes and then I tried to give him a snack. When he refused, I just let him play in his highchair but to my surprise, he was falling asleep! I didn't keep track but he must have slept at least 30 minutes in the highchair. After that, I let him out to play but he would touch a few things and then just lay on the ground. He didn't sleep at first but then he dozed off again! I would have thought he would be even more cranky and fussy if he didn't feel well. Seeing him all mellow and not wanting to do anything worries me even more. Throughout the day, he had a temperature of around 38.5 C. I took his temperature under his armpit. It's definitely a fever so if this continues for more than 48 hours, I'll go to the walk-in clinic.

Whenever the baby is not well, I always try to figure out what happened. Jean-Louis and I have recently acquired itchy throats and are coughing so it could be us. Actually, Jean-Louis has been sort of coughing for about a week now. When we went to daycare last Friday, I noticed one of the staff members were sick and a couple of kids were coughing. We were not in a lot of contact with any of them but it's possible we caught something just being in the room. My nephew was coughing a lot and we had dinner with him and his family on Sunday. Or maybe I under dressed the baby at home? He was fine yesterday and we have been in the house for 48 hours. I find it peculiar that we are all feeling a bit sick because we all had our flu shots. Tristan had his shots about two weeks ago. None of what we have or what he has should be the common cold. Of course, there are still risks of getting sick even with the seasonal flu shot. Maybe we would all be a lot worst if we didn't get vaccinations.

Could it be teething? No, it can't be. He is teething but he was fine all the past times and we didn't even give him Tylenol at all. Ok, I'm going to stop guessing. Hopefully, things will be more or less back to normal tomorrow. Too bad I'm not breastfeeding anymore. He certainly could use my antibodies now.

12 month vaccination day

Today, we took Tristan to the doctors for his 1 year vaccinations. He got poked four times, one in each limb. The ones in the arms hurt more since they have to be in the skin so those were done after the legs. Poor baby :( That is the most he has ever had in one visit. Like most of his past shots, he took them quite well. He cried initially and then stopped. At the end of it all, you can kind of sense that he was learning and he had this fear in his eyes whenever we grabbed his arm or leg. Now, we have to wait until at least June 1, 2010 for his 18 month shots.

During the day, he has been a bit crankier than usual. I gave him Tylenol twice so that should do it. It also didn't help that he went for his shots during his usual nap time. He was so tired afterward that he actually fell asleep in his highchair as I was feeding him his yogurt and fruits during lunch. I cut the lunch short and put him down in his crib. Because he only had the one nap today, that could also explain his crankiest tonight. We decided to put him to bed 15 minutes earlier. Tomorrow, I am interested to see how this will affect his mobility. If he is sore, he may not want to walk as much, which would be great for us :) I just don't think we would be that lucky.

I was surprisingly calm taking him to the doctors. I guess because we have all had so many shots lately that it seemed like another routine visit. Two nights ago, Jean-Louis and I had our H1N1 and seasonal flu shots. The shots themselves did not hurt. About 5 hours after, we both started to feel soreness in our arms, especially the side with the H1N1 vaccine. The morning after, I was super sore and felt like I was getting a bit sick. Apparently, all this is normal and may last a couple of days. After all, they do inject you with the disease so that your body can recognize and fight it the next time you encounter it. Well, that is sort of the idea behind vaccines. It's just so uncomfortable not being able to sleep on your sides because both sides hurt. That first morning, I actually felt so awful I had to take Tylenol. Now aside from sore arms, I'm fine. I think my body is broken from pregnancy and birth since I can't explain how I have become so fragile. So this week, the entire family is experiencing aches from vaccinations together! Next week, will be Tristan's turn again: his second doses of the flu vaccines :(

H1N1 and seasonal flu shots

As parents, we all know how miserable it is when your baby falls ill. If the baby is sick, they are cranky, they may not sleep well, or eat well, and are extra clingy. If that isn't bad enough, chances are you will catch their cold too and fall sick yourself. And being sick and haven't to take care of a sick baby is the worst of the worst things out there! So there you have it - we're not taking our chances and Tristan needs to be vaccinated against the flu.

Yesterday, we brought Tristan in to a public clinic that opened up in our neighborhood. They were administering H1N1 and seasonal flu shots. It's only the second week that the H1N1 vaccine has been available in Canada and this week Tristan falls under the priority group of children 6 months to 5 years. The H1N1 vaccine will probably open up to the general public in a week or two and that will be when Jean-Louis and I will get ours. We also plan to get the seasonal flu shot. We have never gotten the seasonal flu shot before but since we became parents, it has become much more important for us to stay well. I am especially concerned about myself since I can't explain how I could have fallen sick 3 times in the past 3 months. I am normally quite resistant to catching colds. I'm so tired of getting sick.

The clinic we went to was open from 9AM-3PM. We wanted to go early because we didn't want them to run out of vaccines. We heard about shortages in vaccines and long line ups so we were a bit worried. It started out exactly how I pictured it: lining up outside in the cold and freezing rain. I felt sorry for some of the parents and kids in the line up because they were all under dressed for the weather. It was no fun but once we got inside, things went quite well. Tristan received 2 pokes, 1 in each thigh. He cried on initial contact only. He was such a trooper :) Afterwards, we were instructed to sit down for 15 minutes to make sure he didn't have a reaction to the vaccine. The whole journey took about 2 hours and we got home around 12:45PM.

When we got home, we just continued on with the rest of our daily routine. Tristan seemed to be doing well so we didn't even bother giving him any Tylenol. We have been observing him and feeling for his temperature but nothing seemed out of the ordinary. He went to sleep at his usual bedtime of 9PM. During the night, we noticed he had some difficulty staying asleep. This was unusual so I got Jean-Louis to check his temperature the second time he woke up. He felt a bit warm so we decided to give him some Tylenol around 2:30AM. After that, I held him for a bit until he fell asleep and then I put him down. That seemed to have done the trick and he slept until 8:30AM. In the morning, after his milk, we gave him a second dosage of Tylenol. After that, I think we more or less returned back to normal.

Tristan rolled over but I missed the action

This morning during tummy time, Tristan rolled completely over for the first time. No worries, I had him on the camping mat on the floor :) No falls this time! I went to turn on some music on the computer and when I returned, he was on his back. Naturally, I went to grab the camera hoping he would do it again but nope. At this point, he was getting sick of tummy time and started fussing. We both got the feeling he was close to rolling actually. Last night, Jean-Louis and I both observed him on his side a lot in his crib. I saw the same thing when I changed his diaper this morning. Well, next time he does it again, I'll try to capture it on video.

Today, we also went to the doctor's for Tristan's 4th month shots. It was just 2 in the legs and he didn't cry as much as the first time. The next shot will be for his 6th month and it will only be 1 shot, which is nice. When we got home he had a huge nap. It was over 2 hours so I had to wake him up for feeding. I could see him sleeping much longer if I didn't wake him. I wanted to let him sleep or play or whatever he wanted to today since it was shot day. It's all part of the "babying him around shot day policy" I have in place.

At the doctor's we also found out that Tristan is now 14 pounds 7 ounces. Wow! For weight, he falls somewhere between the 50-75 percentile. That means he is feeding well so I'm happy :) I was a bit worried there because he spits up and vomits so much milk lately and I really didn't feel like I was producing much milk anymore.

Tristan's shot day and Mommy is not feeling well :(

I felt queasy half of the day yesterday when we came back to Vancouver. Then last night, after my shower, I vomited quite badly. I hate to vomit. I'm always scared to vomit when I'm nauseous. Unfortunately, it wasn't instant relief after that. Then I got the chills and went to nap. I felt like crap and all I could think of was how am I going to feed and take care of Tristan. I lost a lot of liquid, all my dinner and was really weak. I could not hold Tristan to feed him so I tried doing it from bed. He laid right up next to me and it was actually kind of nice. It worked alright but I don't think he got as much milk though. Boy, I hope all this is just a bad case of food poisoning.

It's terrible to be such a basket-case while taking care of a baby. It's hard enough doing it when you are healthy and can give it 100%. I was stressing out a lot so Jean-Louis agreed to take the day off to help out. Thank goodness. I have been queasy on and off all day. Now, I'm scared about what tomorrow will be like. I managed to have a bit of apple and vegetable soup today but that's all. I wonder what kind of breastmilk I'm producing as a result. Poor Tristan :( I'm still weak and have the chills and I just can't hold him very much. I have to sit down most of the time or I get dizzy. There is no way I can hold him and walk the stairs all day to soothe him. I'm using the pacifier more today for this reason and also because Tristan had his first set of shots at the doctor's office.

Tristan had 3 pokes in his leg. It used to be 4 but the new vaccines are combined in a way so there are fewer pokes necessary. It was bad enough for Tristan though. He cried so hard when it happened and then it was sort of fine. My poor baby. He's on baby tylenol right now.

I've been feeling tired all day and my back is killing me for some reason. What is going on? I hope tomorrow will be okay since Jean-Louis needs to go back to work.