Teething Drama

Sydney is teething AGAIN. She has 16 teeth now and it looks like she is getting one more in soon from the redness and swelling of her gums. So 2 nights ago, Sydney had a horrible time sleeping, getting up every couple of hours screaming. It wasn't until the next morning at breakfast that I had a sneaky suspicion that she was teething. But at that point, we were both very sleep deprived. So Sydney got up, yawning every 5 minutes from the lack of sleep and I seriously thought about keeping her home so that she can get some rest. But the first thing she did after breakfast was to go into her room, open the closet and pull out her school backpack. She really likes it at school (except the mornings when the other kids are crying for their parents because they are still working through their separation anxiety). So I decided to let her go to school and see how her day goes.

"Baby Doll, check. Sippy cup, check. Change of clothes for after lunch, check."

"Mom BETTER be ready to go!"

So I dropped Sydney off at school and told her teachers about her sleepless night and warned them that Sydney will probably be irritable until her nap time. I get a call from the school a couple of hours later saying that Sydney felt warm so the teachers took her to the nurse's office and the nurse said that she had a fever and that Sydney was sick. So I rushed to the school to get her and it turns out that Sydney had a temperature of 99.7. And she was deemed cranky because Madeliene keeps wanting to hug Sydney and Sydney wouldn't let her. Sydney finally had enough of it and broke down and cried. The teachers and the nurse all thought Sydney was VERY sick and they were very concerned for her health, and rushed to call me. They all admitted that Sydney did not cough or sneeze once in their care, and Sydney's appetite hadn't changed and she exhibited the same level of energy as she had on other days. I wanted very badly to ask the nurse to provide me with a copy of her nursing degree and/or certification. But that seemed rude. I wanted to tell them to keep the needy girl off my daughter. But that seemed mean.

"Why does that French girl keep touching me?"

I was looking for an excuse to cut out of work early anyway, and we had the Shanghai Mamas party to go to at 4pm, so it wasn't a big deal. When I dropped Sydney off as school today, the nurse pull us into her office and took Sydney's temperature. She gasped and shook her head and I was sure she was going to tell me that Sydney had typhoid or yellow fever.

The nurse didn't speak English so we had to go to Sydney's classroom to have the teacher, Ms. Kang, translate. As it turns out, Sydney had a whopping 99.3 temperature and the nurse suggested that I take Sydney home. Sydney gets a 99.3 temperature running from her bedroom to the living room. Since it was just a suggestion, I decided not to take it and informed the teacher that Sydney is just teething and that the elevated temperature was not high enough to warrant taking Sydney out of school. I explained that Sydney's temp is always a bit elevated when she is teething so this is not a case where Sydney is sick and contagious.

It was pretty funny because they really wanted me to take Sydney out of school but they wouldn't come out and just say that it was school policy and that I had no choice. It was all "suggestion" and "for your consideration" and "maybe" and "we thought you might want to" language. And my responses were "thanks for the suggestion, but...," "I've considered and Sydney is going to stay at school," "maybe she stays at school," and "I want to keep Sydney at school." As long as they gave me a choice, Sydney was staying in school. It was also funny that they kept trying to convince me that Sydney was sick. The teacher said she heard Sydney cough ONCE yesterday. When I commented that coughing once in a 24 hour period does not a sickness make (but in a less sarcastic manner), she said that she noticed that Sydney didn't eat as much as she usually does. Then she said that instead of eating 3 cookies at snack yesterday, Sydney had 2. As much fun as I was having at school, I had a meeting to get to at the F-ing Office and had an hour commute ahead of me. I thanked everyone for their concern and for letting me know, but Sydney was going to stay at school and if her temperature hits 101 or more, then they should call me and I will come get Sydney.

I called throughout the day to check in on her and her teachers said that she was doing fine. But when I picked her up, Ms. Kang said that she still thought that there was something wrong with Sydney's stomach because she had a poopy diaper at school today and that had never happened before. (Need I comment???) (off topic: When our ayi first started working for us she asked me what time Sydney pooped every day and was perplexed that it occurred haphazardly)

But it gets better. Sydney typically has wet poopy diapers (everyone reading this blog who do not have kids are totally disgusted now) when she is teething. So she had one when she got home from school. Our ayi said "Sydney stomach not good". She said it was because I gave Sydney cold food from the fridge and that's why Sydney's stomach is "not good". When I asked her what food she is talking about, she said "water". She's just BEGGING to be fired.