fever with a side of butt rash...

annabel got sick this week for the first time. yeah, i know. she made it 7 months without any problems but it had to happen sometime. now i suppose that i need to go back and be a little more accurate. since she spent her first five days in the special care unit at the hospital and we spent her first month of life going back and forth to the doctors office, i guess the more accurate statement would be, annabel got sick this week for the first time since october. although, technically all those trips to the doctor were for non-illness related reasons - eye problems and weight issues...wow. all these words and you're still wondering what the heck is wrong with her this week. jeepers. sorry. tuesday evening cheryl noticed what looked like a rash on both of annabel's arms. kind of strange. wednesday morning when annabel woke up she felt warm. cheryl checked her temperature to find out that she was running a fever of about 101.3. not bad but something to keep an eye on. annabel's whole bottom was also rashy wednesday morning. cheryl made a number of calls to the doctor's office but the triage nurse kept telling her to keep an eye on it but it didnt sound like a problem. when she woke up on thursday her fever was gone but the rash seemed worse on her arms and her bottom. again, calls to the nurse told cheryl it was probably nothing to worry about. none of this really seemed to be bothering annabel but it was bothering us. so friday morning when the rash was still there and had spread to her chest and legs, cheryl made an appointment and took the baby in to get looked at. turns out that she's got a case of roseola. its a viral illness that is somewhat common in small children ages 6 months - 2 years. since it is viral and the fever has passed, there is nothing really to do other than wait for the rash to clear up, which should take 2-5 days. we also don't know where she picked this up. in the last week she has played with our neighbor's baby, gone to church, gone to the grocery store and gone to the zoo. the good news is that this is really no big thing and doesn't seem to bother her at all. so if you happen to be a fan of big illness, this would be kind of a let down. but for the rest of us, we'll be happy when its all gone.