Elaina the Wet Faced Girl

Everything in our house got a dose of damp from Elaina the Wet Faced Girl. From our bedding to the carpets, the dog and many, many clothes; Elaina's face was like a faucet with a slow leak today.

Over the course of the day, she shed many tears, her nose is still dripping out the final remnants of her cold and she drooled like a machine. Her fever has barely lifted, however I am much preferring the 100 degree reading versus anything higher. I woke us both in the middle of the night to dose her Tylenol and by morning, her temperature was closer to 99 degrees. Not fabulous, but a much welcome and needed relief after holding her smoldering little self yesterday. Even her hands felt hot to the touch. She woke up crying just a short while ago and for the first time in two days, her forehead felt just fine !! I am worn out but elated !

There were plenty of times throughout the day where I was only minutes from putting Elaina's coat on her to head to the nearest Statcare to have her seen. I'm not usually this uptight over a fever, but her behavior and the rumbling in her chest when she breathes and the amount of discomfort she demonstrated sent too many bad feelings through my body. I worry about pneumonia, RSV, and pretty much everything else that isn't healthy. Each time I was able to calm her long enough to think about heading out the door, she began eating, drinking and acting like she was better. She must have known what was going on in my head.



About the drool machine ... to make matters worse for our girl, she's teething like crazy ! Sometimes it's easy to confuse a cold with teething but she has gotten hit with a bad dose of both this past week. Today, she barely swallowed and just let the slobber fall where it may. She went through 5 shirts, 2 bibs and a pair of pants. Trust me, we're not talking about a little bit of drool here and there, I'm talking about practically being able to wring out her shirt after 30 minutes of wear. The above picture shows off her fifth and final shirt of the day and how mommy got smart and just tucked a bib inside of her shirt to keep the dampness off of her. Still, I powdered her chest and neck with each change of clothes to dry her up a little.

All in all, today was an exhausting day for the both of us. Eric arrived home about 20 minutes ago and missed all of the tears and anxiety of the past 2 days, let alone what Elaina went through.