It took 11 months....

But we finally have a sick baby.

I'm not counting the runny noses all kiddos end up having this time of year.  I mean 'really' sick.

Tzelia came down with a fever last week.  She was cranky, lethargic, and very needy.  She felt like a hot water bottle and her temp was over 101.  So we took her to the doc; our worry was an ear infection since Zev had a lot of them when he was an infant his first winter.  Her pedi said her ear was slightly pink, so we got a script for some antibiotics and started them.  Her fever didn't really break until a few days later.  A few days after that, Jason noticed that she had developed a rash on her chest and abdomen, spreading around her shoulders.

So yesterday we took her for a sick child visit.  Our thought was it was either a reaction to the antibiotics or it was a viral infection:  the fever and rash could be a sign of roseola, which is a virus that children.  The main symptoms are a high fever, followed by a rash a few days later.  Those symptoms matched, but the rash looked a bit different from a typical roseola rash, at least in my opinion.

The doc tended to agree.  She told us that it was most likely viral and to stop the antibiotics.  Whether or not it was roseola....it doesn't really matter since there is no treatment for it anyway.  But she did agree that the rash didn't look like the typical roseola rash.  And she said if Tzelia does end up needing antibiotics in the future to try the amoxycillin again, but watch for a rash just in case this really was just an allergic reaction.

That's what I tend to think it was.  I think she had a virus that naturally went its course and the rash was a reaction to the drugs we gave her.

But 11 months without a sickness is pretty good, I think.  I'm chalking that up to not doing day care and the fact that she's still getting breastmilk.  Gotta love the antibodies there.

Speaking of which, I've got about three weeks left of pumping.  I really need to start figuring out how to cut down and how I want to introduce the whole milk.  Right now I'm pumping about 6 times a day, and twice at work.  Either next week or the following I think I'll drop one session at work and keep the rest, and then go from there.  The longest I've been able to go during the day is about 5 hours and then I start to feel 'itchy'.  Overnight, I've gone as long as 6 hours, but that's typically on a weekend when I 'sleep in' (ha...that means 6:30am rather than 4:30).

Its very bittersweet for me.  I'm glad I made it this far, although I'm not sure who really cares at the end of the day.  Is it really such a big accomplishment?  I suppose it is...most people wouldn't do this, especially for twins.  It makes me sad to stop, but I think my husband would kill me if I wanted to continue.  He's been very supportive but hates that I'm doing it (because of the inconvenience...it means scheduling our days around the pump, he doing a lot more, etc).  I think he's a lot more excited about my stopping than I am...

sigh.