Sickness Has Struck Again

Jules has been sleeping poorly and has been abnormally cranky, sad, frustrated, and clingy for the last week or so.  At first we just thought it was teething, as he's due for some more teeth and was drooly there for a few days.  Then he started waking up screaming in the middle of the night, inconsolable and sad.  Nursing didn't help, water wasn't wanted, he didn't want to lay down to sleep with us, he just kept trying to throw himself on the floor kicking and screaming.  We'd done a little ibuprofen in the evenings prior thinking it would help the teething, but after being awake from 1AM - 4 AM with him last night I realized that this just wasn't normal.  By the end of Pete's work day today I had made an appointment with the pediatrician to get him in right away.

As soon as the doctor came in she reassured us that this was not typical behavior for teething and that something else was definitely the culprit.  This was relieving on one hand because then I felt like we could DO something about how bad he has been feeling.  On the other hand I was sad because I felt like I should have caught it sooner, and gotten him in quicker.  Once she looked at his ears she determined that the left one had been infected, but was on its way to healing itself.  Then she looked at his right one and it was swollen and filled with fluid.  Raging ear  infection present.  She gave us a tougher antibiotic than last time since he'd had an infection so recently and we've armed ourselves with probiotics to help counteract it.

After a big dinner, the first in a while, he's fast asleep now dosed up with the antibiotic, ibuprofen, and probiotics in his water bottle. I am crossing my fingers he'll get better rest tonight, but if he wakes I plan on having medicine at the ready to help with the pain.