Midnight Mishaps

I awoke with a start to a gurgling, choking sound.

Leaping out of bed, I stumbled to the crib and thrust my hands out to lift the silently heaving baby out of her crib.

But her body felt strange as I lifted her, so I set her back down.

Peering through the darkness, I realized that she was facing the "wrong" end of the crib, and I had lifted my poor vomiting child upside down.

Oops.

I scooped her up correctly and hurried to the bathroom. I leaned over the sink and tried to aim her face over the basin but realized that despite her heaves, nothing was coming up.

So I sat down on the toilet seat lid and rested her face against my chest and stroked her silky head and murmured to her.

She was strangely quiet, perhaps startled awake herself, and didn't really cry. This surprised me greatly because I am completely phobic about vomiting. Troubling that my child can take it in better stride than I can... though to be fair, I think I'm okay once I am in the middle of it, also.

When she was done, I carried her to the changing table to check her diaper and take her temperature.

As I inserted the thermometer, I started to feel nauseous myself. When the thermometer hit 101, I couldn't wait any longer, pulled it out, and fastened the adhesive on her diaper as fast as I could before lifting her sleepy body into my arms. My heart was pounding, my stomach was gurgling, and my stomach roiling.

I headed into the kitchen to go to the bathroom but couldn't make it without fear of falling and dropping her, so I lay down on the nice, cool kitchen floor instead, resting the baby safely between my legs.

I lay there a minute or two and suddenly the feeling was gone.

I lifted the frightened baby up again, comforting her, then scurried back to the bedroom to lie down in bed together before the feeling returned.

A half an hour later, neither of us were sleeping well, and she was asking to nurse. I figured it had been long enough since the vomiting to risk it, so I nursed her, then left her wailing self on the bed while I changed her sheets before depositing her gratefully back into her crib.

We both woke up feeling much better this morning.

I have no idea what ailed me last night. At first I thought that I was disgusted by taking a rectal temperature, because usually I prefer axillary, but seriously? I'm a nurse, for god's sake. Granted I don't do many, okay, any rectal temps anymore, but still.

So what was it?

I'm guessing it was the shot of adrenaline was just a little too much for, straight out of a sound sleep.

I sure felt guilty, though. Poor baby is woken up vomiting and with a fever, and now she's got to deal with Mommy trying to steal the spotlight back? Seriously?

Update: her fever went up as high as 104 today but she's mostly lacking other symptoms, and seems pretty well otherwise, apart from some nasal congestion. I'm suspecting it's roseola, but I won't know until after the fever breaks and the rash comes out if, indeed, my suspicion is confirmed.