Saturday night, when Karl was a little over 48 hours old, he suddenly started crying in a disturbing way and refusing to nurse. After a couple of hours, it occurred to us that he might have a fever, and found that he had a temperature of 101.4. My pediatrician's after-hours help line told us to go to the emergency room, so back to the hospital we went.
By midnight he had stopped crying, started nursing, and his fever was coming down, so I was starting to feel a little foolish about having taken him to the hospital -- especially since they were about to perform a lumbar puncture on the poor little guy to check for meningitis.
It turned out that he had viral meningitis, and we spent a couple of days in the hospital. Score one for mother's intuition -- and for breastfeeding, since it was his refusal to nurse that really convinced me there was a problem.
Anyway, we're back home again, and all is well. The doctors say that from this point foward, he's just like any other healthy newborn. Yay!
By midnight he had stopped crying, started nursing, and his fever was coming down, so I was starting to feel a little foolish about having taken him to the hospital -- especially since they were about to perform a lumbar puncture on the poor little guy to check for meningitis.
It turned out that he had viral meningitis, and we spent a couple of days in the hospital. Score one for mother's intuition -- and for breastfeeding, since it was his refusal to nurse that really convinced me there was a problem.
Anyway, we're back home again, and all is well. The doctors say that from this point foward, he's just like any other healthy newborn. Yay!
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