My wife’s due date is drawing ever nearer, and we are now down to just a few days until our little one arrives. Unfortunately, as bad timing would have it, both my wife and I have come down with the flu, and we spent the past holiday week wheezing and coughing in bed.
What’s been more worrisome, however, is the slight fever my wife has been running the past few days. It has come in spurts and has seemingly improved in the past two days (knock on wood), but it’s hard not to fret over any potentially adverse effects on our baby.
Of course antibiotics are out of the question, as are most cold medicines, but after consulting with a doctor, we felt it safe for her to take a little Tylenol to keep the fever in check. She’s taken no more than one a day for the past two days, but as anyone who has had a baby can attest, each little pill that goes down travels with a twinge of uncertainty.
The other looming question has been whether or not to get a c-section, as my wife has a congenital heart condition that might flare up during labor. Like most parents, we’d prefer a natural birth, but have been unable to receive any definitive advice from any of our doctors as to what we should do, merely a troubling “if worse comes to worse, we can resuscitate if need be … that is, if we have the right equipment.”
For now, we’re leaning towards the safer-sounding c-section: slight as the chance may be of any heart palpitations during the birth (that and the fact that we were casually informed that our hospital does not have enough anesthesiologists on hand to do an epidural), we don’t want to take any chances.
