I hate heat. Okay, that's all I'm going to say about that.

This week was, um. Just one of those summer weeks where nothing gets done and no one is at their best, especially me (which is why nothing got done).

One awesome thing did happen, I suppose... Crystal came for a visit, pre-trip-to-Japan! She's probably getting off of the plane right now. Color me jealous. We had a good visit, Ruary smiled at her in his lipless, coy fashion, and we ate pasta salad. I have missed her.

Wednesday night, Ruary was fussy. He didn't sleep especially well, and Rick was up with him sticking the binky back in quite a few times that night. So the next morning, it wasn't a huge surprise that he was running a fever. Okay, sick kid. Oh well. But, there seemed to be nothing else wrong except that every time we picked him up, he squealed in pain... it appeared to be in his legs, but turns out that he was probably aching all over. So he ate his first bottle, fussed, and fell asleep on my chest. Now, this is a little boy who hasn't fallen asleep on my chest since he was two months old (I must admit, I have missed that, and it felt kind of nice to have my boy rest his head on my shoulder again). But this told me that he was not feeling well AT ALL. The morning progressed, and so did his fever and aches. But he didn't have any other symptoms like snots or cough, so I was perplexed. When the fever got to above 100 armpit style (which tends to be about one degree cooler than other methods), I called the doctor to see if we should come in. Yes, they said, so we went over that afternoon.

The doctor checked him thoroughly... no congestion, no ear infection, no throat infection, or any other visible stuff. Hmmm. So our doctor said that he would like to do blood and urine work. Whaaaa??? This is just a fever! But I trust our doctor implicitly because he has saved the lives of two babies I know, so we headed over to the hospital with our sweaty boy to get a blood draw (after our ninja doctor did a urine collection via catheter... he was so quick!).

So those of you who are parents, have you ever had to hold your infant down while they get a blood draw? If you haven't, I hope you never will experience this. I need to give props to the phlebotomists who were working in the lab that day... they were very, very sweet and did their best, but it was obvious that DOING A BLOOD DRAW ON AN INFANT IS VERY DIFFERENT FROM DOING ONE ON AN ADULT. At a small hospital, these folks don't do a lot of work on babies, so they are relatively inexperienced. They tried to tap a vein on his arm, and got hardly anything. So they had to stick him AGAIN in his hand. All the while he is screaming in a way I have never heard him scream, and I am trying not to cry (unsuccessfully) while using both my arms to brace his other three limbs. It was a terrible experience. All the while, I could not help thinking about my cousin's family and their little girl Marlee... they experienced things like this on a daily basis for a few weeks, and I don't know if I would have survived with their awesome outlook. They are super-human.

So the initial blood count came back looking like a viral infection, but the blood culture is still "cooking" as our doctor said. No answer yet. I'm hoping nothing scary shows up... when left without an answer, one always jumps to the worst conclusions. I'm trying to keep that in check. In the meantime, however, Tylenol is our friend, and it is keeping the fever down to normal. But Ruary is not himself, and tolerates little. The weather hasn't helped, so he is a sweaty, fussy boy. He is still smiley when he can be, so that makes me feel good. I just want to know why my boy is running a fever with no other signs of illness.

Did he get Mariner fever? We may never know. I just hope this goes away, and that there isn't something weird cooking in my son's blood. Babies shouldn't get sick.