Wednesday Morning Fever

Last Wednesday morning, Mommy kissed me on my forehead and I felt hot hot hot! She then checked my temperature and found out that I indeed had a fever (101.5), and so we headed straight to the doctor's office. After a long day of testing involving a catheter urine test, an intravenous blood draw, and an ultrasound, we found out that I have a Urinary Tract Infection and so I was admitted to the hospital for antibiotic treatment and monitoring.

Now for those of you who know Mom pretty well, you'll know that she HATES IVs. Until last week, she didn't think that there was anything worse than getting an IV. It turns out, however, that there are a few things that are even worse:

1. Holding your 1 month old while the nurses try to give your baby an IV in her left hand.

2. Finding out that the nurses were unable to get the IV into the left hand and then holding your 1 month old while they try to give her an IV into her right hand.

3. Finding out that the nurses were unable to get the IV into the right hand and then holding your 1 month old while they try to give her an IV into her right arm.

4. Having the successfully inserted IV in the right arm come out in the middle of the night and then holding your 1 month old while the nurses try to give her an IV into her left arm.

Yeah - it turns out that the veins in a 1 month old (who was born 4 weeks early) are pretty small. Weird, huh?

Anyway, here are some pictures from my adventures in the hospital:

First they got me in my right arm:

And then they got me in my left arm:

Here's a picture of me in my "cage". This crib had a warning on the side that said it could only support 300 pounds. Now THAT'S a big baby!

Mom stayed right in the room with me at night and Dad, Grammie, and Grandpa kept me entertained during the day. My parents bought me this pink elephant to keep my spirits up, too. I named her Elli. I didn't quite know what to think of her at first, especially since the nurses in the hospital kept calling me "Peanut" and supposedly elephants eat peanuts. I growled at her a few times, though, to show her how scary I can be, and now we're good friends.

Daddy took good care of me while I was in the hospital. This morning when I was discharged, I even weighed 7 pounds!!

This was the view outside my hospital room window. Nice, huh?

Mom and Dad said that I was so brave the whole time I was in the hospital. I was a true Warrior Princess!!!!

Anyway, after 5 days in the hospital, I'm now finally recovering with oral medication at home. I'm going to have some more tests done in the next few weeks to see if I have Urinary Reflux; that's a condition where some of my urine goes backward toward my kidneys when I pee. Man - that would mean that I have both Gastroesophageal Reflux AND Urinary Reflux. Everything seems to be going in the wrong direction! Maybe I'm really an opossum and need to be hanging upside down for things to work right!

Needless to say, after everything my parents and I have been through this past week, my 2 month immunization shots are going to be a walk in the park.