Fever and rash

Sunday 2nd - I wanted to try and get a photo of Hezekiah with his tongue out in concentration (it's so cute). I got a few nice photos. He is such a happy boy and so expressive.
The children and I walked up to the shops yesterday and on our way home we passed a garage sale. We picked up this box of construction toys and I knew Ruth was going to have a lot of fun with it.

Hezekiah had a fever through the day and by the evening he was really not feeling great. It's not often you can get a cuddle that lasts for more than a few seconds. What an amazing Dad. They went outside for a little bit but the wind was too cold. We don't want that fever dropping too quickly.
The fever was still quite high through the night (but not getting dangerously high). He was feeling a lot better when he woke up though and was thrilled that his Dad was around to take him out into the garden to "help" at 8:30. Brendon has the week off which is such a lovely treat for me (and the children).
We also finally got the little gumboots out of the storage box and he is thrilled with them.

It was a bit chilly that early - even Brendon had a long sleeve top on. It did warm up though and again by the end of the day Hezekiah's fever up much higher. He had good naps during the day - having 4 or 5 shorter ones rather than his normal two longer ones. As the day went his energy decreased. Not helped by the fact that he was not at all interested in food. At least he was drinking enough though - so we did not need to worry about dehydration.

Rachel has gotten back to riding more often now as we have had to almost ban reading. There are so many things she would love to do but just gets drawn to the books so easily that the day disappears and she has gotten nothing extra done. So hopefully she will learn to have more self control with her books and balance the reading with getting other fun things done.
Tuesday 4th. Hezekiah's temperature got really high last night before bed - getting close to 40. So we gave him a small amount of paracetamol to just drop it a bit. It was just above 39 when he went to bed. At around midnight he started being disturbed again and so I had him in the bed with us between then and around 4am - keeping a damp cloth on his head and comforting him when he was disturbed (also checking by touch that the temp was not getting higher). By 4am he had gotten into a restful sleep (and I checked and his temp had not gone up) and so I put him back in his own bed - sure that the temp would not get closer to 40 before the morning. I had asked a few friends to pray for him with the fever creeping that high the previous evening - and when he woke on Tuesday morning at around 6am the high temp had broken. It was under 38 and it was just such a relief to have that high temp over with. "Thank You Lord for answered prayer."
We had been praying so much for him and supporting his body with such great natural products. God answered prayers and his little body did such a good job with dealing with whatever is going on.
He was still warm through the day - having a lot of shorter naps again and not eating - but much happier in himself and having a bit of fun when he was awake. He is so pleased to be able to move himself forward on this bike now.
6:30pm and outside again. Now he insists on having his socks and boots on. :-)
I love how this little stick looks like a wonderful sword in his hand. So nice to still get lovely smiles from him despite all that his body is going through.
With him not eating much Ruth tried to tempt him with freshly picked strawberries. Such a kind and caring big sister. He did eat a bit more this evening and it was so good to see. I know they can cope amazingly without food for a few days - but it does a mother's heart good to see her children eating.
Wednesday 5th - Brendon's new ride on blades where dropped off this morning so an early start was made to getting the jungle tamed. Normally we just allow the mower to spread the grass as we go - but it was so long now that we had to rake. At least all the girls helped.

Eventually Hezekiah was quite tired and was due for his morning nap. We knew he would not be happy being taken inside when the ride on was still going - so he spent the last little bit of time riding with Dad. What a happy boy he was with that set up. Previously he had been helping put the cut grass in the wheelbarrow and he had gotten full of grass.
So when a rash started that afternoon we were not sure if it was from the grass or finally the symptoms from the 3 days of fever. I noticed it behind his ears and then it spread to his face and body.
On Thursday morning the rash was full on so I knew it was not the grass. It may just be a viral infection that caused the temperature and now the rash - but measles is also a possibility with the diarrhea that he had with the high fever and how the rash has developed.

At least whatever it is - the worst is over.