Taking a Huge Step Backward

After leaving the doctors office that day Julian became very cranky. He cried all the way home while we were in the car. When we got home he would eat or sleep. And then I noticed he felt very warm. When I took his temp it was 101. The doctor had given me things that could happen after shots and running a fever was on the list of side effects. So I sent my husband to the drug store to get something to bring his fever down while I tried a cool bath to break his fever.

Usually Julian loved bath time. He had tons of bath toys and he always enjoyed splashing around. But on this day his little mind was preoccupied with not feeling well. When I set him in the cool water he screamed. At first I thought the water was to cold but when I looked at the temperature it was just room temp. And so then I just knew the screaming was because he didn't feel good. It was a scream that tore my heart out. Julian only let out this scream when he was at the end of his rope. I couldn't imagine anything worse than listening to him scream like this when his bones were broken, he must have cried like this for two weeks! I am sure if the neighbors heard him crying that day I had him in the bathtub, they probably did think I was doing something awful to him. But I knew that I had to get that fever to break.

With in minutes my husband was in the bathroom with us trying to get Julian to calm down long enough to give him some medicine to help break the fever. And as always my husband was the one that got Julian to take a breath. As we got him out of the bathtub and into his jamies it was obvious the fever had broke. It was a huge relief to us both. Then with a belly full of food Julian went down for the night.

As my husband and I got ready for bed I went in to check on Julian as I always did and he seemed to be sound asleep. He was still sleeping on his belly and as I walked out of the room I asked my husband, "Do you think that kid will ever roll over?" With us both giggling about our son we crawled into bed and fell asleep as soon as we hit the pillow. Any day as a parent of an 6 month old is exhausting but the days that involved doctors visits and a fever are even harder so falling asleep that night was not a problem for either of us. Within two hours of us sleeping we woke up to Julian's terror scream again. I jumped out of bed thinking only the worst...had he hurt himself....was he stuck in the crib??? When I entered the room Julian was screaming like he was on fire and as I picked him up he was soaking wet. The fever was back. And so with all of us up again we were back to trying to get Julian comfortable so we could all get some sleep.

It took my husband and I hours to get the fever to break...we administered more medication. We stripped his jamies off and were putting cold towels on him to cool him off. Just as I was about to get everyone in the car and head to the closest emergency room the fever broke and Julian fell asleep in my arms as I rocked him.

Once again we were all back to sleep and the house was quiet. Julian didn't move the rest of the night. He managed to keep his temperature down and I thought we had gotten through the worst of it. The next morning my internal alarm woke me up before Julian did. I looked at the clock and it was only 5:30. It had been a hard night for my little man so I just let him sleep. I went down to make coffee and was just pouring myself a cup when I heard him whimpering through the baby monitor. It was an odd cry for him it didn't sound like the usual "come get me outta this crib" cry instead it was more of a "are you kidding me with these shots" cry....but either way it sounded like he was up.

When I got upstairs he was in his crib laying face down like he use to when we first brought him home. He didn't move an inch when I started to talk to him. Instead he just cried. I picked him up and gave him his good morning kiss and he felt a little warm. Not to terrible just warmer than usual. But what was more strange to me was he was barely moving at all. I changed his diaper threw him on my right hip and we started to head downstairs for breakfast. As I wrapped my arm around his little leg like I always did he let out that same scream I had heard the night before.

It was at that moment that I figured out that Julian thought his little legs were broken again because of the pain from the shots. I wiped his tears and kissed his forehead and I started to sing Jesus Loves Me to get him to calm down. By the time we got downstairs his little face was still full of stress but the tears had stopped. I wanted to test my theory about his legs and so before I fed him breakfast I sat him on my lap and tried to get him to put weight on his legs. He wouldn't do it. He was back to acting like a slug. I couldn't blame him really. All he knew was there was pain again in his legs. He wasn't going to move because he didn't want to have to feel the pain.

I called the doctor later that morning and explained how our night had gone with his fever and now how he was dealing with the pain. She explained that some children just reacted that way to vaccinations and asked me to give him three days before we brought him in or if we couldn't keep the fever down then call back. So for three days we fought fever and pain with Julian. Every six to eight hours the medication would run its coarse and the screaming would start. There were cool baths, night sweats and lots of tears from all of us in those three days. We were all so tired and overwhelmed by it all. But by the end of day 3 our little Julian was back. He was smiling and talking. He ate and seemed like the little baby we had grown to love. Everything was the same except Julian still wouldn't move his legs.