Grammy to the Rescue!

Sunday afternoon Carter took a 3 hour nap which made me nervous he was getting sick because he never sleeps that long.  Then Sunday night he struggled all night waking up at 11, 11:45, 12, 3:30, and then eventually for the day at 6:15.  As I pulled my tired hiney out of bed Monday morning I debated whether I should keep him home or not.  I took his temperature 5 times with each reading right around 98.5 degrees.  So off we went, me half wishing he'd had a temp so I could have stayed home from work.  Let's be honest, I was full on wishing that! 

Almost half-way through my day, at 11:00, I got the dreaded call from daycare.  It was Carter's teacher informing me he had a temperature of 102.9 degrees.  I tried not to panic, but he'd never had a temperature of 101 or above, so I was worried.  I was also concerned his temperature had spiked that much in just a few short hours.  I rushed around creating sub plans and setting out materials and texted Ty to call for an appointment.  When I arrived to pick Carter up he was still wearing his socks and shoes which I thought was ridiculous and immediately pulled them off.  By the time we got home the highest reading I got using our temporal thermometer was 100.3.  I felt much better knowing his temperature wasn't as high as they reported but I was also frustrated.  We've had so many times where I've gotten a phone call that Carter's temperature was above 100.4 and I had to pick him up only to find he didn't have a temperature at all or it was a low-grade 99 degree temperature when we got home.  I'm about at the height of frustration on this issue, but that's a whole post all on it's own.

Carter and I arrived for our appointment at the doctor's office.  He was very obviously not feeling well and spent our entire wait with his head rested on my chest barely moving his eyes.  They took us back and the nurse took his temperature, looked at the thermometer, and quizzically asked me what I had gotten as his temperature.  She took his temperature multiple times, each time with a reading of high-99's to low-100's.  The doctor came in, spent a very long time listening to Carter's chest, checked his ears, checked his throat, and diagnosed him with a bad cold or upper respiratory infection.  He suggested giving Carter Ibuprofen for the temperature and we were on our way.

Daycare policy states children must remain fever free for 24 hours before returning to daycare so I knew Carter would need to stay home the following day.  My sick days are quickly dwindling and Ty may have a few hours at most.  My mom very graciously offered to come watch Carter for us and after my overly emotional and utterly exhausted self burst into tears at the thought of not being home with Carter when he was sick and the frustration that I had to work, I accepted.  She headed down last night and was here all day with him.

I had already arranged for coverage for the start of the school day so I could take Carter to his follow-up appointment with the ENT to check on his ear tubes.  Mom went with me so I could leave straight from the appointment to go to work and save some time.  Lately when we are ready to leave in the morning, I've been telling Carter it's time to go bye bye.  He'll head over to the front door and reach for the doorknob, trying to turn it.  I figured I'd show mom what he does so before we left I told Carter it was time to go bye bye.  He was sitting in a chair, looked at me, then looked over at his grammy, and just sat there.  I guess he figured since grammy was here, he was just gonna hang out at home.  Such a cutie!  What Carter normally does:

When we did talk him into leaving we headed to the ENT.  They again started with the hearing test which my mom found as comical as I did.  She may need to have her own hearing tested.  She said she thought Carter was turning his head in anticipation of the toy moving and then realized he heard a sound that she was unable to hear.  He did wonderfully on his hearing test and he now had mobility of his ear drum.  The doctor checked out his ears and said everything looks great.  I double-checked to make sure we didn't need to protect his ears any more than we already would have.  He verified that was correct and told us Carter would have to be in 5-6 feet of water for the pressure to disturb the tubes.  He joked you can tell the age of an ENT by whether they recommend using ear plugs.  I thought that was funny.

From there I headed to work and mom headed home with Carter.  Fortunately he was feeling almost back to normal today and had a blast with his grammy.  One of the major perks of Carter being home with his grammy is that she sends me pictures and updates throughout the day.  I love knowing what he's up to and seeing his handsome face!  I have his daycare schedule, but that's just not the same as knowing exactly what he's doing at an exact moment in time.  I sure am thankful for such an amazing mom and I know Carter is also thankful for his amazing grammy! 

All the pictures from grammy: