First Calls to the After Hours Doctor and

ALMOST an Emergency Room VISIT!!!

I was terrified!!!

The afternoon of Monday, January 2, 2012, started out simply enough... my brother and his wife, Peter and Katie, came by to meet Baby Kate... My sister in law had the stomach flu the week Baby Kate was born and wanted to make sure she was healthy before visiting...

They had given Baby Kate the New Year's Onesie that she is wearing in these photos, so we wanted to have some photos of Baby Kate and Peter and Katie... we had also all joked about how much Baby Kate looked like Peter... after the photos, I held Baby Kate, unswaddled, in a blanket...

Since Baby Kate had lost over 10% of her birth weight and I was breastfeeding and supplementing her with formula, I was keeping a log of all of her feedings and wet/poopy diapers... around dinner time I realized she had pooped several times that afternoon... then she pooped again and it was six times in six hours... I began to get worried!!!

Since it was a holiday and after hours, we called the pediatrician's after hours number... a nurse from one of our local children's hospitals called back... she asked us to take Baby Kate's temperature... rectally it was 96.  we took it several times with different thermometers... I had no idea I had so many thermometers!!!  Then the nurse told us she was worried she had sepsis... WRONG thing to tell a worry wart like me!!!!  I panicked!!!!  She told me to put more clothes on Baby Kate, swaddle her tightly, and hold her for an hour... then take her temperature again and call the nurse line back...

As I held and rocked her, I prayed... please don't take my baby away... after about 50 minutes, I took her temperature again... it had gone up to 97 and she had not pooped again!!!! 

I called the nurse's line back and spoke with a different nurse... this one was a lot more calming... she seemed to think that Baby Kate had just gotten cold as we did not have her swaddled and that she was going to be just fine... Praise the Lord!!!!  I was to continue to keep her swaddled and to check her temperature in another hour... as long as it was going up or staying the same, she was probably fine... after checking a couple more times and saying prayers as the digits rose, I finally got some much needed sleep...