I, am a pain in the ass. I admit it.

Last weekend I went into Stella’s room for her 12 am feeding, and she was burning up. I took her temperature under her arm and got 101.8. My husband told me I needed to go low for an accurate reading, something I’ve avoided doing up to this point, for fear of, well, sticking it in too far. I lubed the thermometer up and did the deed, and got a reading of 102.4! Obviously we went straight to the emergency room, where we paid $100 for Children’s Motrin.

To be clear, I’m aware children get fevers, but not MY child. And it wasn’t the fever so much on it’s own, it was the fact that she didn’t seem affected by it, which made me think the poor child was in shock and we needed to act fast. Again, I guess all we needed was children’s Motrin…

We did try to call the doctor before going to the emergency room, but in our haze my husband forgot to leave the phone number on the doctor’s voicemail. Dr. Shimoyama (one of our doctor’s associates) was super diligent and looked up our number to check in on Saturday, which of course I took as her warmhearted way of letting us know she cared.  While returning my third call of the day, I realized, she didn’t.

This is where Alexandra comes in. Alexandra has 5 children, a master’s in social work, and works in the NICU. There is no better friend a hypochondriac neurotic new 40-something mother could have. I figured it might not be the best idea to call the doctor for a fourth time to ask exactly what she meant by “light clothing”. T-shirt and diaper? pjs with no onsie under?  I needed a more specific answer, and of course Alex had it (pjs without feet).

This is not the first time I’ve had to go ask Alex. She’s helped me with projectile vomiting, rashes, sleep training, nursing, poop texture and so much more.  She also babysat Stella when we were visiting the Bay, and tried her best to get her to take a bottle, but alas, there are some things even Alexandra cannot conquer.

So this is my ode to Alex. She’s helped other friends before me, and will help many more I’m sure. I think she deserves her own talk show, but seeing as I’m not Oprah (even though we share the same planetary chart but that’s another story) there’s not much I can do to make that happen. In the meantime, I’ll just keep on keeping her busy.