We went to Pennsylvania on Thursday for my real-life-best-friend Erin’s son’s first birthday party, which was lovely and very fun and such a special event to be included in. The boys got along well (or as well as a couple of one-year-olds can be expected to get along) and we got to check out the new (very old) house Erin and her husband Mitch just bought. We don’t get to see these friends nearly enough so a couple days visiting was awesome.

Unfortunately, about thirty seconds after we left to drive down there, Baby Evan’s nose started running like a faucet. He went from being miserable and snotty to happy and snotty and back several times an hour the whole trip, peaking with what may have been a fever late Thursday and sleeping 12 hours straight Friday night. But he’s 100% better today.

I’m really hoping it’s just teething. It probably is. Definitely. Maybe. But there’s also the teeniest tiniest chance it’s fifth disease. I know a friend whose kids had fifth last week so we MIGHT have been exposed, although I haven’t seen any of the kids in more than a month and the friend in at least a week. I’m not worried about Baby Evan – it’s not life threatening or even particularly unpleasant, but it can be very serious to the fetus if a pregnant woman catches it. It can cause anemia in the unborn baby, sometimes severe enough to cause death although the internet assures me that is very unlikely. Pretty unlikely. Probably. Maybe.

I really shouldn’t have Googled it.

So right now we’re just playing a waiting game to see if Baby Evan gets a rash some time in the next couple days. If he’s fine Monday and Tuesday I’ll breathe a big sigh of relief and forget all about it. If he has even the teeny tiniest of red spots, I’m calling my OB and asking for the blood test to see if I’m either already immune or already infected. Of course, every time I sniffle or get tired or think “ugh my head hurts” my brain goes OMG EMERGENCY!!!! and I consider calling the 24-hour on call line. Not that it would do any good – I really doubt routine blood work is something they would send me to the ER to do and there’s no way the office is open on a Sunday and probably closed Monday as well.

For now, I’m going to try to relax and enjoy the rest of our holiday and have fun going through the 300+ pictures from the party. Like this one:

For the record, that's Reid's brand new birthday toy my kid is using. Incorrectly.

Tags: baby evan, friends, pregnancy, sick, teething, vacation