Ben woke up with a fever after his morning nap today. This was the first time we have ever seen Ben with anything higher than a low grade fever, so now we know how he reacts. He wants to be held 100% of the time, which is understandable when you are such a little guy and feeling so miserable. If I put him down for even the shortest period of time, he would cry his little heart out. He would lay on me and would be totally limp, to the degree that I was worried about him a couple of times, looking in his face and wondering if he was OK. I took his temperature a million times today.
We also now have a new understanding of how Nick reacts to Ben being sick. When Nick saw me trying to hold Ben as much as possible, Nick was jealous and wanted me to pick him up too. To be fair, he is still recovering from not eating for 3 days and having a high temperature for much of that time. Anyway, when I sat down so I could hold them both, Nick was not satisfied because he really wanted me to hold only him. So, his response to all of this was to do everything possible to get attention. He never once went to play with toys on his own while Ben was awake. He constantly and consistently did one thing after another that he knew he should not do, watching me and waiting for me to respond. Did I mention that I was also still running a fever myself and, generally, feeling exhausted, and that I was holding a (heavy) sick child most of the time? This did not make for a good combination.
Just so you know how desperate I was, I actually turned on the TV for about 45 minutes and let the boys watch Animal Planet's Funniest Home Videos (or funniest animals or whatever they call it). The boys loved watching the animals and this kept them entertained for a while. Nick was clapping and yelling and very excited in general about all of the animals and Ben even watched for a while. Nick is the most active child, yet when the TV is on (which is almost never), he is glued to it. It is really an amazing thing to watch. I was bummed when the show ended and the next one coming on was about shark attacks. I couldn't find anything else decent, that I could tolerate, so I turned it off after that, much to Nick's dismay, as he started up with his attention-seeking behavior once again.
My husband picked up some Chinese food on his way home from work, which was wonderful. About 15 minutes after my husband got home, Ben started perking up. He got down and started walking around, irritating the cat, smiling and acting like his old self again. He ate rice for dinner (he had eaten nothing but yogurt all day) and after dinner, he got down and started playing again. His temperature is almost gone. I am amazed.
And, as soon as Ben started acting normal again, Nick started acting normal again too, going off to play with toys and with Ben.
**Updated: Spoke too soon. Ben's fever started rising again just before bedtime. He went right back into limp, hold me mode, poor little guy. We gave him some motrin 45 minutes before putting him to bed. He went down without a whimper, he was so tired, so hopefully he will get some good sleep, at least for a couple of hours:). We'll see what the night and tomorrow brings.
2 comments:
You go girl!!! I always pull out the TV on days like that!!!:):):). It's a good mom who knows when to go back on her own rules! LOL!:):):) I'm glad you survived. Hope tomorrow is better!
OH! and you need to pick up a couple of kids videos to keep for just such an emergency:):):)
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