Saturday Night Fever

Charlotte and I had an eventful morning yesterday- we took a quick trip into Keystone for a baby shower for Kristin Hubbard, a friend from our old church. It was nice to see her and share some of my birth story and the truth that no one ever tells you about childbirth! There was a really nice turnout so I also saw some of our old church family (at least the ladies of the church family since the men don't do things such as baby showers:). Of course, they were not nearly as happy to me as they were Charlotte. When you have a baby, you lose your identity - you become your kids' mom :)

We got back home to find that Jared had been doing a ton of work outside. He took out a lot of bushes in our front yard that really opens up the front entryway. And he trimmed back some other plants, and he cleaned off the porch roof and gutters. It was pouring Friday night and we noticed some water not making it all the way to the end of the gutter but was spilling over in front of the sliding glass door in our bedroom. It was collecting in the track of the door but luckily it wasn't so bad that it made its way onto the carpet. After cleaning the gutter and adding a screw, we shouldn't have the problem any more. He was wiped out by the time he finished!

And, of course, Charlotte got a new boo-boo. With her newfound mobility, boo-boos and scratches are a daily occurrence, but yesterday she hit her eye on the coffee table pretty good. The wailing that ensued was pretty dramatic, but for the ding and bruise she has, it was probably warranted. I felt so bad for her.

Then, around 6:00 we decided we were going to head to the beach and walk around for a little while. We live so close to the ocean but Charlotte hasn't been there a single time. We had everything ready to go and I was just changing Charlotte's diaper before we were going to leave, and I noticed that she seemed a little warm. I took her temperature (which she did not appreciate!), and the poor thing had a fever of 101.8. I called the doctor who told us that it could be a number of things as fever is the first symptom for practically everything, so to give her a warm bath with some peppermint oil in it, nurse more frequently, and try some Tylenol or Motrin if the fever didn't go down within an hour after the bath. Jared was put on cuddle duty while I ran up to the health food store to get some peppermint oil (although I ended up getting peppermint extract for putting in food rather than the essential oil for bathing and such things. I don't think Charlotte got any of the bath water in her mouth but if she had, she would have had minty fresh breath!).

When I got home she ate dinner and had her warm bath. I took her temperature again (and again, it was not appreciated), and it had come back down to normal. Then she got a short burst of energy and played with her toys for a little before bedtime. We even saw a few smiles from her so we knew she was all better. At almost 9 months old, the only sicknesses of any sort have been the sniffles, constipation, and this one fever. When she isn't feeling well, she gets very "cuddly" and just wants to snuggle, which is sweet since the only other time she does that is when she is really tired. All other times, there are just so many more things for her to do. She got a good night's sleep and we are so glad she's feeling better this morning. My diagnosis is that she just had a little "Saturday Night Fever". If we see any platform shoes or polyester suits in her closet, we'll know what they were for.