So last Friday we got an undesirable “First” – Zoe’s first fever… Which, in a 5 1/2-week-old child is extremely undesirable.

Apparently a “fever” at this age is 100.4+, at which time you need to see a doctor, period. So when she felt a little warm on Friday morning, we did the good parent thing and took her temperature (rectally, what a joy). As Bart left for work around 7:30 am, her temperature was 99.7, not too bad but not great either, so we agreed I’d call the doc and just see what they thought. Who wants to be the Panicky Parents already?

However, just 40 minutes later, her fever had climbed to 100.6 – definitely not good. So I strapped her in the car seat and got her to the doctor fast (they have a 45 minute “walk-in” period). Oddly, she had NO symptoms other than a fever, which I found out is NOT a good thing, either. If there are sniffles or oozy noses it’s easy to say “oh, it’s just a cold” and move on. Sans symptoms, they move towards potentially scarier issues. So minutes into meeting with the doc he was putting in a catheter to take a urine sample for possible infection (first catheter is also not a great first).

Her results came back “suspicious” for a UTI, so he decided to begin treatment immediately while he sent the sample off to the lab. Treatment = antibiotics. A shot. Yes, another first, and this antibiotic shot is particularly painful, something the nurse pointed out to me just before injecting it. Oh, and we had to return the following day for another dose, then follow that up with 10 days of oral antibiotics at home (that yucky pink sticky stuff). Next we’re headed for a renal ultrasound on Thursday, then a VCUG test next week (with a trip to the doctor in between for another catheter to retest after antibiotics). Needless to say, it’s been an interesting time around here lately.

I have to say, our child is a brave soul and has been great throughout (though understandably a little fussy). I also have to say, she does NOT like oral antibiotics and if it’s possible to “cheek” liquid medicine, that’s exactly what our child is doing. Oh, and then she leaks it back out at us again with no shame whatsoever. If you have a magic trick to for administering liquid meds to an infant, please share!

So as crazy as all this sounds, we went to the doc today for a check-in, and he says she looks great – plus, she’s gained 1/2 a pound in the past 3 days (up to 9 lbs, 8 oz!!), which is a good sign she’s AOK. Hopefully all the tests and antibiotics will be better-safe-than-sorry activities and next week we can move on to our next parenting challenges from there.