Friday, January 14, 2011

Changing It Up

Today I reached the end of my rope. Last night, Smug-Baby fell asleep like normal at about 9pm, then woke up screaming at 9:30. Smug-Hub and I took turns but the poor girl would nurse and cry and fall fitfully asleep for about 20-30 minutes before waking up screaming again.

At first I thought it was the fact that I had allowed myself some dairy both Tuesday and Wednesday and how it was coming back and hurting my girl. Then Smug-Hub suggested that she may be having a bad teething spell, so we rubbed some teething gel on her gums but it didn't seem to help. Long story short, she didn't settle down and allow me to sleep until 3:45 and I got up at 4:30 for work.

When I got her after work this morning, she was pulling on her ear and looked horrible and felt feverish to me. I called Smug-Grandma who guessed that she had an ear infection and I made arrangements to get some Mullen Flower Oil from her that is supposed to help relieve the pain of an ear infection. That didn't help at all and Smug-Baby just sat in my lap and cried and moaned all day.

Finally, I had reached the end of my rope and I called the doctor. I know that my lack of sleep and the fact that I am STILL not feeling 100% - that's right more than 6 weeks now of being more sick than not - I asked them to work us in and off we went.

The doctor told me that she didn't have any pneumonia symptoms, so I was right to not give her the antibiotic prescribed by the other doctor and it was just bad luck that she had developed an ear infection. He said that a lot of times babies will get ear infections after a head cold as all but cleared up because of the way the ear tube lay. He looked at her ears and said that the left one was very inflamed and red. He told me that the right ear had ruptured and he wanted to treat her with an antibiotic and some drops to help numb the pain in her ear along with some baby Tylenol to allow her to feel better and be better able to sleep.

He also said that I had a sinus infection, which I had really guessed was the case, and I was to take an antibiotic for the infection and steroids and Mucinex-D to break up the congestion. I filled all the prescriptions and went home. I want to do some research on the use of antibiotics for the ruptured ear drum and make sure that it is really necessary before I try to put her through the trauma of taking the meds and all the side-effects that come with it, but I put some of the numbing drops in her ear and it was like a switch flipped and she was just like her normal self! She was laughing and playing and it was wonderful! So much so, that I went ahead and left her with my step-mom and went to my photography class.

After I got home, Smug-Hub said that she had actually had a rough time in my absence so I won't be leaving her again when she is sick to be sure! I really feel guilty about it :(

But she was fine when I got home and we did more drops and attempted the Tylenol which she threw up about 0.002 seconds after we got it down her. So we decided that we needed to get her in the hot shower to clean her up and while there we got another dose down her and she kept it down. After getting out of the shower and dried and dressed, she was calm and happy and playing and is still playing and it is almost 11!!

Daddy and Mommy are beat, but she is happy and while she keeps nursing and seeming like she is sleepy, then she pops down to play some more. I hope she sleeps soon, but overall I am just happy she is no longer in pain.

I am all for letting the body heal itself and I know a fever is a good thing and all that crap, but my baby was hurting and I couldn't let that continue knowing I could do something about her pain. I hope that I am doing the right thing!

UPDATE: She finally fell asleep for good about 11 and slept solid (not even waking to nurse). I am leaving for work now and she is still sleeping. This means that Smug-Hub and I got some solid sleep too :) Why the heck then do I feel so tired??!??!?

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