March 12, 2004

Minor Scare

Well, we had our first (probably of very many) minor scare today. I was holding Dorothy in my lap in the late afternoon, and at some point noticed that her hands felt cold. Earlier in the afternoon the bottoms of her feet had been looking a bit purplish again (her hands and feet had been quite purple when she was born, but turned pink within a couple of days). I felt her cheeks, which were also a bit coolish. Normally she feels pretty warm, so we dug out the thermometer to check her temperature under the armpit, and it was 97.0 degrees. The "Portable Pediatrician" book says you should be concerned about anything under 98 degrees, so we went and changed her diaper and checked her temperature rectally. It was 96.4. That was definitely not good, so we called the pediatrician's office.

The nurse on duty told us to bundle her up, put her hat on, etc. and see if she warmed up. We did so, putting more clothes on her than she'd had on since coming home from the hospital. About an hour later, we checked her temp again. Although she was looking less purplish in the feet and redder elsewhere, the temp was still around 97 degrees. The thing that was really concerning us was that she was asleep and did not want to wake up. To be fair, there had been times in the hospital when she didn't want to wake up for a feeding. But here, she seemed particularly non-responsive to stimuli. She wasn't completely limp, but her level of response was low compared to normal for her. We called the pediatrician again, and spoke to a doctor. She said that 97 degrees wasn't much to be concerned about, especially with a premature newborn. She told us to keep an eye on her activity and behavior, see if she turned purple again, etc. and if things looked worse, to then take her temperature.

Well, the next 60 or 90 minutes were still concerning, because she seemed to stay non-responsive. I turned the thermostat up a few degrees, and we kept a close eye on her. Finally, around 7:30pm or so she really started acting herself again. Over the course of 15 minutes, she started getting more fussy and squirmy, and even started to demand some food.

We'll likely never know what caused the funny behavior in the first place. But for now, Dorothy is looking good again. She's just been helping her parents get some practice at worrying over her.

Posted by Tom Nugent at March 12, 2004 10:34 PM
Comments

Hmmmm......cool, non-responsive...then suddenly awake demanding a hooter and something to drink....if Dorothy were a male, I would have accused her of sneaking out to the bars and tipping back a few.....it has been a long time since I took human phys, but I seem to recall that thermoregulation always takes a little while to get right. I hope it gets better soon...the two of you have had enough worries this past week.

Posted by: Tom at March 12, 2004 11:54 PM

Welcome to parenthood!!!! You guys did great. It NEVER hurts to call!!!! FWIW, I think your pedi was right about the preemie thing & temp. They have a harder time keeping temp regulated. Glad she is doing better :o)

Posted by: Karen at March 13, 2004 10:03 AM
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