This is what a sick monkey looks like...

Friday Max turned 5 months old and we spent the day at the doctor's.  Well, not the day exactly but the morning at least.  It started on Thursday when I picked him up from daycare.  By the time I got home, he was running a fever of 101.8.  A few hours later, it was up to 103.5.  Not what any parents want to see, especially new ones.  A call to the doctor, a dose of baby Tylenol and a cool sponge bath later, we got it down to 102.5.  Max slept on me that night and his temperature was pretty consistent throughout the night, around 101.7.  By Friday morning, however, it was back up to 103.4.  We were at the doctor's by 10am and then off for a chest X-ray because he also had a persistent cough.  Now I don't know how many of you have had to watch/aid in your infant getting a chest X-ray but let me tell you, it was awful.  He had to sit in what looked to be a medieval torture device as I held his arms over his head.  Needless to say, he cried a lot.  So did I.  Luckily, his X-ray came back clear and he was diagnosed with an ear infection.  We started him on antibiotics yesterday and he is nearly back to normal today.  His fever broke at around midnight last night and by 2am, he was all smiles.  I even recorded him singing right around that time. 

Before Max got sick, I had wondered how I would really know when he was sick.  I have never been good at telling when someone felt warm and the idea of taking his temperature constantly just to check on him seemed a little excessive.  But let me tell you.  I knew.  From his glassy eyes, hot head, unwillingness to nurse from me, and overall demeanor, it was only a matter of minutes before I was sure that my little monkey was in fact, sick.  But just like everything else that has happened in the last 5 months, you just figure out what to do.  From cold compresses to obtaining a urine sample via a small bag, you just learn as you go how to be a parent.  And inevitably, you become a good one.  

Happy 5 months baby.