Roseola! (Oddly pretty name for something rather annoying)

On Sunday Savanna had a fever of 102.3. We couldn't see or think of any reason for it, just probably teething, we thought. So we gave her a lukewarm bath and some baby Motrin. She was lethargic and sad and exhausted. She took two naps and went to bed an hour early, sleeping solidly through the night for 14 hours.

The next day she was a little hot still, but not as lethargic. Instead, she was irritable and sleepy. So we just tried to keep her fever down, but we still couldn't see that there was anything wrong--as in, any obvious reason for the fever.

On Tuesday she was less sleepy, but still irritable, and that night, she woke up twice, and the second time, stayed awake for over two hours--starting at 3:00a.m. She refused milk, she didn't want to be held, and she was uncomfortable in any position. She finally fell asleep at 6:30a.m., and woke up at 9:00a.m.

At that point (yesterday morning) I noticed that she had little red uneven blotches on her stomach. Then I realized that they were actually all over her stomach and chest, and although they were spread out, they were unmistakably there. I called Abby, who googled chicken pox and other things for me, but we didn't find anything remotely resembling her rash. I called a neighbor for the number of a nurse in the ward, not in a panic, but just wondering if the nurse would be able to shed some light on this, maybe come over and have a quick look. I had to leave a message.

Then, yesterday evening, my neighbor (who is rapidly becoming a great friend here!) called and said, "ROSEOLA! My daughter had it when she was the same age, and it's really common in their first and second year. They start out with a huge fever, which is the most dangerous thing about it, and if you keep the fever down, you're going to be fine. The rash doesn't itch or burn, but they're probably going to be generally unhappy." !!! So I google "roseola" and find numerous photos of sweet little babies' tummies with the same exact rash on them, most of the photos from blogs.

And then a very helpful article about it, which made me laugh when I read it, because she fits the symptoms to a T--down to her poor puffy little eyes. I was really glad to learn that what she had was nothing to be worried about, something that will just run its course and cause her mostly minimal discomfort (at least after the first couple of days)!

Last night she was so tired and so uncomfortable that we called over my friend's husband to give Savvy a blessing. She fell asleep ten minutes later, slept 'til 11:00p.m., stayed up talking and smiling at us for an hour and thirty minutes, and then fell asleep and stayed asleep (thank you!!) until 8:00 this morning. And it seems that if a baby is going to get a rash, this is the best rash to get. It's hardly contagious after the rash has appeared, and according to the article, most kids show hardly a sign of the uncomfortable symptoms except the fever!

So, in thanks to all bloggers who posted photos of their little babies' roseola rashes and helped me figure out what was going on, I am posting these of Savanna for all bloggers/clueless moms/young medical students googling roseola/anyone googling roseola'S benefit! :)