Best Laid Plans

So much excitement and we had it all worked out: Emily would nap between the two parties while we had a rest and set up for the afternoon event.

But the night before her birthday, she was very unsettled. We knew something was up. Then at 11pm she woke up with a fever. We stripped her down to her vest, gave her some medicine and her temperature eventually came down and she slept at about 3am.

Come 11am (party-time) needless to say, she was shattered. She had bags under her eyes and all she wanted to do was curl into us with her head on our shoulder. She did enjoy the soft play area for a short while but she was clingy and quite cranky. She picked at her food but didn't eat much at all and towards the end of the party she'd had enough and got quite upset and just wanted to sleep.

But when we tried to get her to sleep, there was lots of crying and screaming. I put it down to overtiredness and she was asleep an hour later, but it was distressing and disappointing and all I could think was that I'd let her down because she wasn't able to have fun on her own first birthday.

I know: she won't remember. And there'll be many other birthdays to make up for it. But how cruel for a little girl to be that unwell on her own first birthday.

And the fever raged on. By Sunday, still no real symptoms but I began to discard my teething theory, even the combination of Calpol and Nurofen wasn't making a difference to her fever. She was burning hot and she was not impressed. I planned to call the doctor first thing Monday morning.

But at 10pm, she was up and in a state again. 45 minutes after giving her both medicines, her temperature was only increasing. So I called NHSdirect, suspecting a chest infection. They advised that she be taken to the emergency clinic and at midnight, we were seen. It wasn't a chest infection after all (the wheezing was only due to the high body temperature). It's a double ear infection. Her second in two months, my poor little pudding seems to be quite prone to them.

She is now on antibiotics as well as Calpol and Nurofen (which now thankfully seem to be working) and I can only hope that very soon, she will be able to begin enjoying her second year of life, and all her new toys!

C'est la vie!