I just wanted to do a quick update on Caroline.  Her fever peaked yesterday (assuming it doesn't go any higher) at 102.6 - which is really high for her.  I really think this might be the third or fourth fever of her whole life.  She's just not a fever kid.  So, we've been alternating Children's Motrin and Tylenol to keep the temperature down and trying to keep her comfy with extra time in a steamy bathroom (thinning the mucos, not bringing the temp down, of course) and lots of fluids.  I went out to Walgreen's yesterday and spent a fortune in the "I am desperate to feel like I'm doingsomething to help my sick kid" aisle.  I ended up with Vick's Vaporub (the jury's out on whether this helped or not, but I can tell you that she did not like the sensation of it on her skin) and a warm mist humidifier.  We used to run a cool mist humidifier in her room when she was a baby, but the doctor told us to stop when she was diagnosed with asthma as it can encourage the growth of molds that may exacerbate asthma and allergy symptoms.  I think the short term benefits of using it a couple of nights to help her breathe, though outweigh any risks of mold growth in such a short amount of time.

She seems a bit better today, if you can believe it from this picture this morning:

I guess something I picked up at the store helped a little, since she did manage to sleep reasonably soundly from around 2:00 am until a little after 7 this morning.  This is a significant improvement from the night before when I was up with her every two hours or so - I felt like I had a newborn again!  Funny how quickly you forget how hard that is!  And, in the universally accepted behavior of sick kids everywhere, Caroline only wants mommy so Mr. Incredible gets a pass on the nighttime duty.  To his credit, he has tried to go in there for me to let me sleep, but let's just say it's not met with warm welcome.  If she thought she could she might try to throw him bodily from the room.

What concerns me at this point is that the coughing has started.  I am doing everything I can to try and keep this from developing into a lower respiratory infection (in the lungs) or from triggering a full blown asthma attack which could land us in the hospital.  I've done one dose of our albuterol inhaler and that's seemed to help, so I'll probably do another dose before bedtime.  My concern here is that we were exposed to RSV recently and while I understand that RSV is just about as common as the cold nowadays, it is more dangerous for certain people: young babies, elderly, immuno-suppressed people and individuals with asthma.  Caroline makes that list.  I would hate for us to end up in the hospital with pneumonia or something.

Sigh.

An interesting side note: Caroline's cheeks are chapped from the fever.  I've never encountered this phenomenon and can't find any information on it.  I'm not worried about it as much as I am puzzled by it.  Anyone ever have this happen?

So, for now I'm dispensing Pedialyte Freezer Pops, Sonic Apple Juice Slushes, lots of TLC and, for all the toys in the house...