boo for the flu (part two)

Jude got the flu. Didn't know what to do. It made me blue. But then I knew. I had to tell you. 'Cause you would sympathize too.

Okay, okay. I'll give up my budding career as a poet. All that poem needed was some long pauses in nonsensical places and you'd have yourself a Maya Angelou poem. Speaking of which (of whom?) - have I ever mentioned that she apparently lives in Winston? And that they say (and we all know that "they" are authorities on the subject) that Oprah has a house here, too? So here's the plan...

Oprah and Dr. Angelou will be out shopping for some friend of Oprah's who is pregnant. They go into O Baby Organics (because that's the hip place to be in town), and they'll see my diapers. Obviously - they'll fall in love with them and Oprah will call me and tell me that I just must be on her favorite things show.

And Dr. Angelou will never know that I made fun of her poetry on my blog - so you guys better not let it leak, alright?

Okay, so Jude got the flu. Besides a couple of colds and an ear infection, this was the first time Jude's been really sick. I have to admit that the entire time he was in pain, I couldn't help but think of Jonah and Patrice. It broke my heart to see my little fireball transform into a limp rag in my arms, but I know that it doesn't even compare to what Patrice has to watch Jonah go through. That boy is so amazing to me.

But I'm getting sidetracked - Jude had a fever of 101.9 when we put him down for the night on Saturday. I gave him Tylenol, but knew I'd be up with him at some point in the night. He actually (thankfully) slept until 4:30, and was pretty much wide awake - but none too happy about it. I checked his temp when he woke up, and it was 102.1, which scared me a little bit. I called the pediatrician and while we were waiting for them to call back, we checked WebMD. According to that (and to the nurse who called back), a high temperature in a baby doesn't necessarily warrant emergency room panic. You should panic if they're having trouble breathing, but as long as you can keep the fever under control, you can just make a regular sick visit.

Shawn's workday on Sundays is from about 5:30am to about 10:00pm, and we usually try to squeeze in lunch together before he has to head back to set up for EvenSong. I was so glad to be able to make an appointment for 2:30 - Shawn had to rearrange some of his workload, but he was able to go with me to the appointment and to pick up the medication.

Jude was just miserable, though. He vacillated between just wanting to lay pathetically on my chest and screaming his head off. Having just had the flu, I knew he was probably achy down to his bones, exhausted, his throat hurt, and his little tummy felt very unstable. We took him to the doctor where they did a nasal swab for the flu and pricked his finger to check his white blood count. His count was just fine, but he did test positive for the flu (they didn't say whether it was the swine flu or seasonal flu for either of us, so I'm assuming it was seasonal).

Here's my usually happy and easy going boy on Daddy's lap at the doctor:


With a sick baby, waiting fifteen minutes for test results can feel like you're waiting for ten hours. I'm pretty resourceful at finding random things to amuse Jude (his favorite toys right now are his thermometer case and the spongey tip of his infant Tylenol bottle - go ahead and tell me what a bad Mom I am...I can take it), so we did the old blow up the glove trick:
Shawn acted like I was crazy, but we got a good ten minutes of non-crying out of it. Totally worth it.

Jude went to the doctor on Sunday, and is today almost 100% back to normal. He's slept his normal hours for the past two nights, and has eaten normally as well. He's now giggling at the dog while he feeds him puffs from his chair.

So...not normal, maybe. But he's Jude again, at least.