Yes, as the heading says, little Natalia has Rubella, better known as German Measles..... It all started on Thursday afternoon.......
I raced home from work to pick Tali up to be at Moms & Babes at 14h30. Her cheeks were flushed, but this wasn't unusual as she sometimes has red cheeks after she wakes up, so no alarm bells were ringing. But we weren't even at M&B for half an hour when she started crying and moaning and just being generally unhappy. She normally loves the class and playing with the other kiddies. I put it down to one little boy pulling her hair. After about an hour of her clinging to me and being tearful did I feel her head and she felt rather warm. I decided to leave as she wasn't enjoying the class. Thank goodness, cause when I got home her temperature was 39deg., pretty high and only 1deg from being really really serious. 39deg is nothing to play with. I immediately gave her a suppository and a painkiller to break the fever, which worked, and then it was observing observing observing. Her temperature came down through the night but she was not a happy little person.
On Friday she continued to be unhappy, still having a temp of 37.3deg, and started losing her appetite, eating a little solids but not drinking any milk. I put it all down to teething!!, but could teething cause all this unhappiness?? I phoned my sister and we spoke for a long time - it must be teeth! We continued giving her Nurofen every 6 hours and Calpol every other time. Friday night saw us not sleeping, when Tali woke up every hour screaming with pain. Gees, she must be getting 4 teeth at once we thought, these damned little white enamels are causing havoc - poor little pumpkin!
Kim and I were zombies on Saturday. Tali had NO appetite on Saturday - all she ate was a teething biscuit and a little yoghurt. She was drooling buckets, her top soaked. She was not herself and my mind flashed back to January when I thought someone had abducted my happy girl and given me a different unhappy child.......... AND THEN, Saturday evening we undressed her for her bath and there it was........ the reddest, bumpy, pimply rough rash that we had seen yet. I got such a fright and Kim was on the Internet within seconds. What could it be? This could be what was causing all this havoc..... Still after reading tons, we weren't certain of anything. What we read was that it could wait till morning and was probably not life threatening. Luckily the rash was not on her face.. worst on her legs, arms and bum area and stretching onto her back and abdomen.
Again Saturday night came with minimal sleep so Kim and I were knackered today... This morning we went to see a GP who diagnosed German Measles, a viral infection, which comes along with a sore throat and mouth sores, hence all the drooling cause Natalia couldn't swallow. You cant do anything for German Measles, other than give painkillers and wait for the rash to 'burn' itself out. It's not a serious disease, but is only for pregnant woman! Everything that was happening fell into place. We do think she is teething at the same time....but now at least we know there is this other thing to deal with, and should be over within a couple of days!
At Moms & Babes and not feeling happy. Flushed cheeks and unbeknown to us a fever on the way!!
The red bumpy rash on Natalia's legs on Saturday night!
Reading a magazine and trying to be in good spirits
A good moment with Dad, our brave little girl
