Haute Mom Dilemma #21 ~ Sick Party of One

I've gone 6 months with a happy, fun, HEALTHY baby so to my surprise, Stella had a 102 degree fever early Wednesday morning. I knew one day Stella would fall ill but hoped I wouldn't be having to put the nurse outfit on anytime soon. You can't prepare yourself for that tug in your heart when the little one isn't feeling well, can you?

Stella had her 6 month well visit appointment on Tuesday and received her last set of vaccines for the next three months. She is never a happy camper after these visits (why should she be) but this one seemed a little worse. I knew it was going to be a doozy the moment I saw our nurse. Bless her heart for trying, she didn't seem to have graduated on the top of her nursing program if you know what I mean. She also moved about as quickly as a sloth. Then I found out she would be returning to give Stella her shots...great. After a PAINFUL (physically and mentally) round of shots, that seemed like it took longer than my visit to the DMV the other day, Stella was hysterical. Not the usual crying of dislike but hysterical like she maybe will have night terrors about this with the nurse as the dark shadow. I knew it would be time to batten down the hatches.

Stella seemed to be content the rest of the afternoon, and I left for work that evening feeling confident that maybe the doctor's visit had been the worst of it. I later put her to bed in a mood slightly more sour than usual but figured maybe the night with dad babysitting had been a little irritating for her. About an hour later Stella woke up and could not be consoled. She didn't want to be held, she didn't want to nurse, she just wanted to cry. I finally got her back to sleep to only be faced with the same thing about two hours later. It was then when I realized she had a fever. My friend told me that when Stella had her first true fever I would know and this couldn't have been more true. I pressed her hot little body against mine while my husband took her temperature. It was 102. I made my first middle of the night call to our pediatrician only to be told to give her some Tylenol and blame the shots, or her teething. We decided to put Stella in bed with us and with fear that my hubby was going to smother her in the middle of the night, I made him go sleep in her room. At least he got some sleep that night while Stella and I had our first mommy-baby up all night slumber party. Can we just talk about the things that are on in the wee hours of TV land...

Having made it through the night, I was relieved to see that the fever had gone down by morning. I felt like I had gotten my first initiation of the many nights in the future where I will stay awake to care for my baby girl. I do wonder if I did what I should have done by giving her Tylenol. I am not a medicine taker myself but don't know if my own philosophy should be applied to my 6 month old. I also now wonder if I should have followed an alternate schedule for her vaccines or if a fever would have happened either way. Any thoughts haute moms?