Being a mom

Couple of nights back, when I held Rania, I felt her warm.
But I didn't think much because no one around her was sick.

So I took her temperature, it showed 37.5 deg, the normal body temperature of a human.
(I was always taught in school it is 36.9 deg and I still do not know why the change)
I decided not to be a kancheong mummy and gave her water to hydrate herself and so she can pee it out.

At 4am, she was listless.
Crying and crying with her eyes closed. I thought it was her normal milk request.
But her cry was somehow different than the usual.
So I picked up the thermometer, took her temperature and my eyes were opened wide.
38.6 deg.

Rania is always listless when she is warm.

So I gave her 3.5ml of panadol, she refused her milk and she comforted herself back to bed.

When we woke up in the morning, she was still 38 deg. That was when I decided to take child care leave. She is still refusing her milk.
The hubby suggested that we headed down to KKH. It was a weekday morning and didn't think the A&E would be packed.

But on the way, I decided for us to head down to Ang Mo Kio Polyclinic.
It was not as packed but waited for about 30 mins before our number was called to be registered. The Indian aunty was so kind and told us that if above 38 deg, get priority queue number.

She did give it to us eventually and waited only 10 mins to see the doc.
The best part was it was heavily subsidized that we ended up paying $10.40 for a $48 consultation and 4 types of medication.

Her fever still didn't subside. She only drank a bottle of milk.
I was finding ways to make her drink. I gave her juices and barley.
Fail.

At 8.15pm, she was 38.5 and her temperature was refusing to go down.
So I resorted to giving Rania 1.25ml of ibuprofen. Something which I am highly allergic to and drove me to Gleanagles Intan Hospital many years back.

I was the one listless. I kept checking on her to see if she had any allergic reaction to the medication.
Alhamdulillah she didn't and in fact her temperature went down to 37.5 deg.

I swear I was one happy mummy.

She was active back again that night and we were happy parents that we brought her to the supermarket. Her playground and also because we needed to hoard more milk and celerac for her.



The supermarket is such a great place for her to have practice using her senses of sight, smell, touch and seeing her parents oogling over her all the time.



That night, her temperature went up to 38 deg again.
I took her medicine syringe and started to force feed her water to about 15mls.

That is the thing with viral flu.
It will keep going up and down for the next 3 to 5 days but should not reach the initial peak.

Despite the sleepless nights and lack of rest and huge amounts of worry, it will all go away when your child gets better and ALSO when the husband says,"Good job Mummy!"

You will be beaming with pride!

xoxo