Earlier this week we had our first (at-home) bout of concern over Ewan’s health. He had had an extraordinarily fussy day (he is usually a pretty calm, content baby) and nothing seemed to console him. I was home alone for the day and did my best to pull out all my tricks, walking, singing, dancing, snoozing together, giving him the boob, and nothing seemed to work.

When my mom came back later that afternoon it seemed that, in addition to being fussy, he was also a little on the warm side. So, we decided to take his temperature. This was my first foray into taking the rectal temperature of my little guy and I must admit it was a bit nerve wracking, as every other first has been.

We successfully managed to get a reading, and it was 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit. Just on the edge of what was considered a fever. I cried, did a little freaking out, and then turned to the world’s most knowledgeable source, the internet.

Basically, I found out that that is a pretty low-grade fever and it can often, in little ones, be caused simply by overbundling an infant that has no ability to regulate its’ own body temperature. So, we took off a layer of clothes and decided we would take his temperature a little later on to check the status.

Later when Aaron got home we decided to take the temp again. I had read in one of our baby books about how to properly take a rectal temperature and told Aaron and my mom that sometimes inserting the thermometer can trigger a bowel movement. We all sort of laughed at that thought, or image, and proceeded.

We took off Ewan’s diaper, added a little lubrication to the thermometer to help it slide in nice and easy, and inserted it just until the metal bulb was completely invisible. Then we waited. The numbers started to dance around, slowing climbing up and down, when suddenly Ewan farted. The fart didn’t affect the reading at all and the numbers continued to climb, except that fart was shortly followed by the bowel movement that the baby book had warned us about.

As soon as his little poo squirted out, the thermometer promptly stopped measuring the temperature and instead flashed a giant “Err” on its’ screen, indicating that an error had occured. Yes, I would definitely agree, there was an error.

We cleaned him up and started the process again. This time without the promised bowel movement and got a new reading. This time, a healthy, normal temperature of 99.7 degrees. Phew!