Tag Archives: fever

Making A Rash Decision and Duct Tape Diapering

04/21/2015 R.C. Liley 4 Comments

Guess we celebrated Avery’s recovery too soon. No more fever, but she started to develop a rash on her lower belly. It was good to see she was back to being active, but her eating was and still is not up to par.

Despite what it looks like in the picture, Avery was not scratching at or even acknowledging her spreading rash. But, Going Mom did enough worrying for the both of them and was worriedly searching Dr. Google for an answer.

Since it was the weekend and the rash didn’t seem severe enough to act immediately, I said we should just wait until Monday and reassess then. My wife, still showing signs of concern, as any loving mother would, agreed to give it time. Meanwhile, she used several forms of home remedies/treatments in hopes the rash would suddenly disappear.

Coconut oil and her homemade solution of essential oils to diffuse may or may not of helped, but her rash was hardly visible by Monday. Phew! Kelley took off from work and neither of us wanted to spend her day off going to the doctor for our poor daughter’s rash. It had already been a long, stressful week for Avery, and an impromptu visit to the doc would only add to it!

In other news, Avery started undoing her cloth diaper again. This happened a few months ago and we used packaging tape as the solution. The tape sucked and fell off easily, so we’ve upgraded to duct tape which seems to work much better.

duct tape cloth diaper — So it’s come to this…..

Or so we thought…..

Apparently you have to duct tape all around or Avery will simply just pull the tape right off. Smart girl. Now she gets duct tape full circle around her cloth diaper.

Like any toddler, she doesn’t make it easy, but handing her the roll helps keep her still long enough just to make sure everything’s secure.

Once she’s all wrapped up, she then likes to get down to rap.

Okay, not really rap, but that’s the only thing that would work for my corny dad pun/joke. So sue me! Actually,please don’t. 🙂

Besides the mystery rash and finicky eating, we had a great family weekend together. Even though Avery didn’t have a fever, I think it was best we didn’t bring her to our friend’s kids’ 2 year old birthday party since she hasn’t been 100% quite yet and we didn’t know whether the rash would spread or not. Instead, we enjoyed playtime and coffee during the day, and a lot of The Walking Dead after Avery’s bedtime.

Seriously, we are hooked for the long haul and almost to season 4 at this point. It’s bad when we set a limit of 2 episodes and end up watching 2 more. The crazy life of parents with a toddler, huh? That said, I enjoy having a good show to get into with my wife, and it’s nice to stay off of the computer and watch something good with her instead.

Really quick before I wrap things up, I went on an hour long run in my new Soft Star Shoes Dash RunAmocs with a bullhide leather sole and find these better than my Moc3’s I reviewed previously. I’ll have a full review of the Dash RunAmocs eventually, but will be running a half-marathon in them on Mother’s Day before publishing anything. Until then, I’ll keep wearing my Soft Stars and Avery will wear hers as we exercise and play together each day!

Has your kid ever had a mystery rash that didn’t seem to bother them but looked bad?

Any other kind of rash?

What do you think about taping your toddler’s diaper to keep them from undoing it?

Life, Parenting

Screw You, Teething and Sickness!

04/17/2015 R.C. Liley 4 Comments

We’ve gone a few weeks since our last torturous teething episode, so I guess we were due for another one eventually. It’s difficult to prepare for these things as we never know the severity of one teething incident to the next. but shrill crying is almost ALWAYS expected.

Okay, crying, drooling, change in eating habits, extra fussy, and tired are others to expect as well. But this time, Avery has been running a mild fever which, although common for teething, is never fun.

Is it actual sickness, or strictly from teething? All we can do is make the best guess from her body language, and looking in her mouth which is no easy feat!

It started on Wednesday where everything seemed normal in the morning. Avery shot me her mean face as I scurried to make her breakfast. She’s a demanding one, even shaking her fist!

I moved quick and fed her a fresh batch of NuttZo Banana Bread which helped turn her back into cute-face Avery.

We carried on with our day by going into the garage for a workout and then went on a walk/run with our Golden, Abby, around the neighborhood. We stopped at the neighborhood playground so Avery could romp around in her new Soft Star Shoes and, of course, proceed to remove all of the mulch from the playground.

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I tried to turn it into a game to get all of the wood pieces back into the pit, but she didn’t care to play. After playing the antithesis of my game for 20 minutes, we strolled back home for lunch and naptime.

As I prepared lunch, Avery started acting odd by not being very vocal. I waived it off as just being tired after catching her doing the all-to-common eye rub.

But then, her mood turned and I could do nothing right. On top of that, after struggling to get her to eat something, a major teething symptom appeared….

Cranky slobber girl came out to ~~play~~ drive me insane! She took a few more bites of lunch and finally just straight up refused anything else. Since this is when I am trying to make my own lunch as well as dinner for Going Mom and myself, I threw what meal I could together and took Avery to get her down for a much needed nap.

She hasn’t fallen asleep in my arms for naptime in a long time (she does for my wife and that damn magic boob though!), but she was exhausted and fell into a slumber within 5 minutes. I laid her in her crib where she slept without a peep for almost 2 hours. Another oddity as of late.

I had high hopes that after getting some rest, she’d be all honky dory again. And when she flashed a grin like this right upon waking, I felt we were in the clear.

We went to the kitchen for some water and a snack before going on another walk. The first sign that she was still not her usual self shined through as she held her sippy cup while rocking her crazy after naptime hair. Her face makes it obvious that something is not right. But, still freakin’ cute, huh?

On top of this, Avery felt very warm and still was having trouble eating anything. I gave her small bite of chewy chestnut which she usually eats pretty well, but she kept that thing in her mouth for a solid 20 minutes! Yep, one little chestnut and she held it there like a Russian hamster (that’s for you and Hammy, Gary!) hoarding its food.

Those cheeks!!

Once Going Mom came home from work, she took Avery’s temperature and confirmed she had a mild fever of around 100°F. The rest of the evening was spent with Avery going back and forth from happy to crying, to pissed at the world, to “lights” (she stops everything to point up at lights), and back all over again.

After dinner (another struggle) and a bath, Kelley nursed Avery to sleep where she didn’t make a sound all night. The good thing about this is that it broke a 4 day streak of her pooping after going to sleep, the bad thing is that this meant she must really feel bad.

The next day, Avery woke up with her fever gone and in a seemingly chipper mood. Kelley sent a text asking how she was and not seeing signs of fussiness or difficulty eating, I said all was well. During our morning workout, I sent her a pic of Avery swinging her kettlebell as if peace had been restored.

Silly me, I was so WRONG! We went to Sprouts after our usual walk/run and while wearing her inside the store, the cranky slobber girl returned!

Her cries radiated throughout the aisles as I quickly tried to remember why the hell I even came to the store. My memory returned and I grabbed what we needed (and some of what we didn’t need) and drove back home.

For the next hour, Avery sat at my feet, crying loudly, as I tried to feed her and rush around the kitchen to put meals together. Poor kid, I tried holding her and pacing around and could feel the heat radiating off of her body again.

She wouldn’t eat much, but drank water and more breast milk than she’s had in a while. Avery fell asleep in my arms again, and I’m positive I could’ve played the trumpet in her face and she would remain asleep. Don’t worry, I don’t have a trumpet, and I’d probably just end up spitting into the thing without a sound being produced.

My loving wife dropped everything the second she got home and I told her the fever was back and took our happy girl away. Avery simply would not allow us to stop holding her. Kelley held her for the rest of the day as I cleaned and prepared dinner. But dinner was not had as Kelley just wanted to get Avery to sleep and held her as she nursed the poor girl to sleep.

It was a sad, quiet night, with this being the first fever-induced sickness we’ve experienced with Avery. Her temp got up to 102°F and her eyes were heavy all evening. At least Going Mom and I took the requisite parent with sick kid selfie and posted to social media.

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After laying her in the crib, Kelley came out to eat dinner with me and we tried to watch a Walking Dead episode. Not 5 minutes into it though, we see Avery just sitting up in her crib. Silent, but just sitting there as her body slowly waved around.

After another 5 minutes of her still sitting, we went in and discovered problem, she threw up. I managed the sheet changing and diaper getting duty while Kelley cleaned Avery and changed her clothes. Kelley once again held Avery to comfort her to sleep as I came out to write this post. We decided to postpone watching zombies for the night since parenting comes first. Oh, and it’s on Netflix so we can play catch-up after Avery is well again!

Maybe I’ll happily report she’s back to her old self flashing smiles and eating better in my next post. Fingers crossed!

How do/did your kids handle the woes of teething?

Were they sudden or gradual signs?

Life, Parenting

Breast Milk with a Fever and Playtime with Avery

04/30/2014 R.C. Liley 6 Comments

Yep, today I’m a stay-at-home dad and husband. Well, technically I’m always those things, but work with me here.

Poor Going Mom, she came home on Monday and seemed fine, but she was suddenly overwhelmed with body aches and a fever. She had just changed and started a workout when her body just didn’t feel up to par.

Kelley had quickly turned so weak it took all she had just to stand, and I wanted to help however possible, but there’s not much I can do for fevers. Of course, I still bugged her and asked if there was anything I could do about 10 times.

With Kelley so weak, I figured I’d need to be the one waking up to feed Avery as her beckoning wails of hunger rang through monitor, but Kelley was still adamant on breastfeeding. And rightly so; breastfeeding when you are sick is actually one of the best things you can do for your baby!

Actually, not breastfeeding while ill increases your baby’s chance of getting sick! I found this excerpt from Kellymom.com and recommend reading the full post here.

The best thing you can do for your baby when you’re sick is to continue to breastfeed. When you have a contagious illness such as a cold, flu, or other mild virus, your baby was exposed to the illness before you even knew you were sick. Your milk will not transmit your illness to baby, but it does have antibodies in it that are specific to your illness (plus anything else you or baby have been exposed to) – they’ll help prevent baby from getting sick, or if he does get sick, he’ll probably not be as sick as you.

And that’s what we did, only I brought Avery to Kelley in our room instead of her going to the nursery like usual. I’m already so grateful that Going Mom is willing to continue strictly breastfeeding Avery since it is the best thing for a baby and obviously free, but to continue when so ill is outstanding!

I just want to say way to go to my dear wife and all other women who are able and willing to breast feed; it’s the best nutrition you can give.

We will be starting to give Avery food in a few weeks since she’ll be 6 months, and then I’ll puree the food with breast milk to ensure good nutrition. Fun times ahead there! I hope she likes pureed Brussels sprouts with breast milk!

On Tuesday morning, Kelley started feeling nauseous so I gave her a Zevia Ginger Ale which helped settle her stomach.

With the intention of working even though she was sick, Kelley needed her laptop. I planned on making a trip to the store anyway, so, with Avery along for the ride, we made a little pit stop at her work and we were on the way to the store.

Back home, Going Mom fed Avery and put her down for a nap while I unloaded groceries and went to the garage for a workout. Afterward, I was starving so I made something for myself and Kelley as a late lunch. Not long after, Avery decided to wake up, so she hung out with me in the kitchen.

Together, Avery and I did what all babies dream of; put together sandwiches for mom! Yep, I make several at a time so I always have one ready for my hardworking wife!

Hmm, so it takes eight slices of bread for one sandwich? I'd rather have boob... — Hmm, so it takes eight slices of bread for one sandwich? I’d rather have boob…

Meanwhile, my sick wife diligently worked on the couch in the living room. Or at least tried since I kept talking and Avery kept blowing raspberries which doesn’t make for the best work environment.

She probably didn’t appreciate that I had the TV on either. Sorry, Kelley. To give her some peace, I took Avery for a long walk in the Ergobaby Ventus while she finished work for the day.

After a rather windy, but otherwise nice weather walk, we returned home to see how Going Mom was doing. Surprisingly, her fever had gone down and no more body aches, but she did have a bad headache. Boo headaches, yay reduced fever!

With her slightly improved condition and work done for the day, we took advantage of our happy daughter and enjoyed playtime together.

She’s been getting more interested in her colored rings and we’ve been working on her sitting up without help. You can see me in the background helping to hold her a little. I tried letting her sit up unassisted, but that only resulted in this..

Oops.

No worries though, playtime was still a go!

How long does that “put anything I can in my mouth” phase last? Or maybe I don’t want to know.

What I do know, is that we’re finding out Avery is a very ticklish baby. Her upper thigh is the most sensitive if the squeeze both sides, it’s my weak spot too, and when I “attack” her legs and stomach.

Poor girl, she’s probably wondering when the annoying “mom and dad tickle everything” phase will end. Well, Avery, I’m here to say it will never end! Even after you’re grown and out of our house, we’ll still tickle attack you like the baby you currently are. Sorry, it’s just love!

Although Going Mom had to get sick, it ended up being a good day just spending time together and playing with our constantly growing baby. We know she’ll be sitting up on her own soon and face planting will be a thing of the past.

If you’re a mom, have you ever had to breastfeed while sick? Dads, same question but for your significant other.

Any thoughts on the importance of breastfeeding over any other kind of feeding? Please share.