When Kids' Fevers Won't Quit: A Sleep-Deprived Parent's Survival Guide

It all started with a tweet:

Little did I know when I fired off that sleep-deprived observation that we were only halfway through the fever marathon.

#Fever Ping-Pong

It began innocently enough last weekend. One kid started getting sick. Then, like clockwork, another one joined the party.

Because why should only one child experience the joys of midnight Tylenol doses and be accidentally woken up in the middle of the night while trying to steal temperature checks?

We'd attack one 102-degree fever, feeling good as it dropped to a more reasonable number, only for the other kid to spike to 102. Back and forth we went, through the night, like some bizarre game of fever ping-pong that no one signed up to play.

While my wife I stumbled around from sleepless nights, our kids were groggy, cuddly, and sleepy the following day. You could tell they didn't feel good, which instead of sleeping in their own beds meant constantly hanging on us so we couldn't reclaim any rest.

#It's a Mystery

The strangest part? No one threw up. No one had any symptoms other than fever. With our 3.5-year-old, we worried about an infection. With our 1.5-year-old, we thought maybe teething was the culprit.

My wife did the responsible thing and took them both to the doctor, who essentially said, "Yep, they have fevers and there's not much we can do." Just one of those viral things getting passed around.

We were worried about our 1.5-year-old son because he had experienced a febrile seizure before. Is it possible for him to have one again? We weren't sure. And let me tell you, that uncertainty makes every slight temperature rise feel like a ticking time bomb.

#Survival Mode

This wasn't just one-day, either.

The fevers lasted for a WEEK. A full seven days of constant temperature checks, medicine schedules, and the special kind of math you do at 2 AM: "If I gave Motrin at 11 PM, and it's now 2 AM, and the fever is back, can I give Tylenol now or do I need to wait until... wait, what day is it again?"

Only yesterday did we finally stop the medication carousel. I feel like I should throw a party to celebrate, but that would require energy, which is currently in short supply.

#Parent Down

Guess who isn't feeling so hot today?

🙋‍♂️

That's right. After getting two fever-ridden children back to health, my body decided, "Hey, you know what would be fun? If you experienced this from the other side!" Thanks, immune system. Your timing is impeccable.

There's never a good time to get sick - same goes for kids. But there's

#Need to Rest

I'm trying to see this as an opportunity to slow down and be present. At least, that's what I feel I needed. God has a funny way of forcing you to pause when you won't do it voluntarily.

I'm trying not to do too much today. I feel the brain fog creeping in - it's hard to stay focused, even as I write this post. Simple tasks feel like solving complex equations.

But I wanted to produce something, ship something. So, here's my attempt - a feverish, slightly delirious account of a week spent in the trenches of parenting sick kids.

If nothing else, maybe this post will remind me next time that we survived this round, and we'll survive the next one too. And maybe some other bleary-eyed parent reading this at 3 AM while holding a sick child will feel a little less alone.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to rest.