Blossoms amidst gloom

Kate's been sick since day 2 of starting school.

It started with a sniffly nose which I tried to nip in the bud immediately by feeding her cold medicine. We brought her to the GP on day 3 (of school) for a cold & cough & a rash that she had anyway. That weekend, she had fever. It subsided within a day and she went back to school on Monday. She attended school every day that week & was on her cough & cold meds that whole week. The second weekend, her temperature spiked again. It crept up to 38.5 on a Saturday afternoon and we had to miss her first scheduled dance class. Over the weekend, she fought the bug but the fever won and on Sunday night, we did an emergency visit to the clinic at 10pm because her fever spiked to 39.5. Her temperature continued to stay high and it’d spike to above 39.5 at least once in every 24 hours – and this has been the way till yesterday. That’s Tuesday and she’s been burning for 4 days already.

The husband made the decision to bring her to the PD because it doesn’t make sense that she keeps burning – so we did. & it’s a good thing we did because after doing a flu & blood test, we found out that the little one has contracted a bacteria infection (sigh, yes, again). She was put on antibiotics immediately and I’m so tired (for her – and us) that she’s so ill again (so soon!) and feel awful. There’s no way to prevent this really, since this bacteria is rather common and can be airborne =_= I guess this is an unwelcome “welcome” gift from childcare. Boo. Her temperature’s still high-ish (ranges from 37-38) for today though I just want the number to drop and stay low. She hates the awful-tasting antibiotics but we have no choice but to force feed that to her – for the next 2 weeks! Poor Kate.

We can kinda tell how high her temperature is at times, because when it goes up it goes so high that her whole body is raging with heat. She also becomes listless and sleepy and a different person. When her temperature dips though, she’s normal! And eating and bouncing. The husband says “my mood, and hers, is dependent on her temperature”.

A little spot of respite yesterday was when her temperature was down (and therefore normal). So we popped into the orchard to shop for CNY plants for our home.

Amidst the (Kate says) "small small oranges!"

Loving the father-and-daughter matching colours

She has some strength to explore (she's been so clingy and much prefers to be carried)

Happy baby = happy parents. Love her smile.

That short flower-shopping session was so fun, because we got our little girl back (for that short while). Before she succumbed to the fever again and crashed to sleep. I cannot cannot cannot (insert swear word) wait for the bug to go (insert another swear word) away! *ggrrr

The husband has been such a rock and logically tending to her with the need-bes: fever patch, cold towel, and the extreme was a bath at 2am one night when she was burning up. Me? I’m mostly feeling emotional and sad seeing her whine & cry from feeling unwell, and well, just feeling sad because she’s in discomfort. I try to hug her as much as I can as she yearns the TLC but I’m hopeless – I attribute it to me being tired and (extra) emotionally-strung-out being this heavily pregnant (just talking to the husband about certain issues make me teary the past 2 weeks). He’s been so steady and made it easier for me by doing on night duty, and taking leave to stay home to look after Kate. [Thank you, my husband]