Well, We Had a Good Run

We made it to just over 25 months without a single ear infection.  I don't know why, but I was always stupidly proud of that.  I know it's weird to take pride in something like that, but I can be a little weird so I did.

Well, that came to a crashing halt yesterday.  Actually it started almost two weeks ago.  On Thursday the 18th we had a bad night with the little dude.  There was screaming/shrieking and tantrums in the middle of the night.  No fever, though.  After a dramatic 90 minutes he went back to sleep and was back to normal in the morning.  The following Tuesday (the 23rd) we had a repeat performance.  Again it was 90 mins or so with him being inconsolable.  He wouldn't say what hurt and he still didn't have a fever.  Again he was back to normal in the morning and was fine the rest of the week.  I kept checking to see if his molars are coming in since I couldn't find any other reason for this sporadic crankiness.  No teeth.

This past Sunday he had a great day. We went to the park, he played with us outside, he took a decent nap - all was good.

Until night time.

We went to put him to bed around 8:30. He went down fine, but I could hear him playing in there while I folded laundry.  At 9:15 he was shouting and crying.  I gave him some motrin (still thinking teeth). He still wasn't calming.  While J was rocking him he drank a bunch of water and then got himself so worked up that he puked all over both of them.  Awesome.  Eventually he got calmed down and we got him in the crib at 10:30 and headed to bed.

Right before midnight he was screaming and crying. I went down and changed him and rocked him, getting him back to sleep by 12:30. I headed back to bed, but between J's snoring (for which he was poked several times) and 2.0's midnight acrobatics I wasn't falling back to sleep.  At 1:55 Andrew was back up so I grabbed my phone and charger, turned off the alarm and headed down for what I figured would be the long haul.

I got his blanket out of the dryer (it had to be washed again after the puking earlier), got some tylenol and went to get him.  We rocked and I had him back in the crib around 2:10.  I decided to just stretch out in the recliner in his room so see if I could doze off.  I did for maybe 5 mins before he started crying again at 3:03.  He wouldn't settle with me in the recliner so I took him into the guest room (soon to be his room) and tried to see if I could get him to sleep with me in that bed. No dice.  I have no idea how the eff people can bedshare with a toddler.  For the next two hours we tried every position but neither of us were sleeping.  Occasionally he would whimper "duck" or "blanket", both of which he already had.  I was at a loss.

J came and took him at 5:12 (he had also been awake for most of the night) and told me to go lay down and try to get a little sleep.  He had already sent his boss a message letting her know he wouldn't be in.  I did get about 90 mins of sleep before my alarm went off at 7:30. When I went back downstairs they were still in the recliner and Andrew still was fussing.  I gave him a motrin and within 5 minutes he was passed out.

I sent daycare a text letting them know he would be out and I rocked my poor sad munchkin for 10 mins before putting him back in the crib.  He fussed for a second and passed back out.  I called the doctor and got him an appt for 11:15, emailed my boss and a few coworkers to let them know what was going on, and got a couple hours of work done.

At 10:45 we woke him up and got him dressed for the doctor. He wouldn't eat but was thirsty. This time I rationed the water so he wouldn't puke again.  On the way to the doctor I was silently praying for an ear infection just so we would have something definitive that we could treat and fix.  I wanted there to be a reason that he's been freaking out some nights.

Well, I got my wish.  Big time.  He has a double ear infection including a burst eardrum in his right ear.  When she said that I almost cried.  I felt like the absolute worst mom in the world for not bringing him in sooner and making him suffer.  He never ran a fever (still didn't have one at the doctor) and was perfectly normal the days and nights between his episodes.  If he had had two bad nights in a row I would have been more inclined to call, but I don't want to be the parent who calls the doctor over every little thing, so I didn't.

With prescriptions for ear drops (for the burst eardrum ear) and an oral antibiotic for both ears we were out the door.  We gave him his first doses and Andrew spent the rest of the afternoon curled up on the couch being sad and snoozing.

He didn't want to eat, but he would drink some water.  After about a 3 hour nap on the couch he woke up and gave me a little grin. My heart soared when he asked for a fruit pouch (applesauce) and hungrily sucked it down.

The motrin got him back to acting like our little spazz, but it was obvious when it wore off.  During his bath he got some tylenol and after about 30 mins you could see when that kicked in. He was all over the place last night and wanted to play - I guess to make up for not being able to play all day.  I got him to bed at 9:30 and said a silent prayer that we would all get some sleep.

I'm happy to say that he made it through the night and didn't need anything until 6:15 this morning.  Since he's back to acting like himself he was able to go to daycare today (I gave him his antibiotics this morning and Andrea has his tylenol in case he needs it around lunchtime).

I'm hoping the antibiotics work fast and that he's back to 100% soon.  Sick munchkin makes for a very sad mommy.

So yeah, we had a good run while it lasted. It would be nice if we could make it another 25 months before we deal with that again, but that might be asking a lot.