The Ears Have It

At least, they are now the leading contender in why Margaret was so cranky and wouldn't sleep. After Margaret started up her routine of waking every hour during the night again, I decided to take her to the emergency room. She was acting so unlike herself and the screams were louder than usual, as well as sounding different. I did learn one thing: if you want service at the ER, bring a screaming infant. I have never been in and out of there so fast in all my life! In the end, they decided that she has ear infections in both her ears. Had she been displaying any signs that this might be the case? Nope. No ear tugging, no problems eating, just the crankiness. The last time I worried about an ear infection due to crankiness, it didn't turn out to be that at all so I guess that's why I didn't even consider that a possibility. But there we were at 3:30AM getting her ears checked out, and the doc said they were red inside. He prescribed amoxicillan for 10 days and infant's Motrin every 6 hrs right now for the pain. As soon as they gave her the Motrin, she stopped screaming and went to sleep. She's been pretty good ever since.

I feel horrible that she had been cranky for days now and I didn't even think to have her ears checked. I'm always so worried about being one of "those" moms that overreacts to every little thing that I missed something big. How awful.

In any case, I'm home with her today. Well, at my mom's house anyway. The hallway at our apartment building is being redone (plaster down, sheetrock up) so I knew there was no way either one of us would get any rest today. (Mind you, I didn't make it into bed until midnight because of Becky's flea bath incident...and then Margaret started waking at 1:30AM.) I was a bit worried about calling into work... this will be my 4th sick day this month, 3 of them for Margaret. But it's not like I have any control over the situation. She definitely can't go to daycare today. She had no sleep, she's in pain, and she's in the first 24 hrs of an antibiotic she's never taken before. Work can wait... or I guess I'll end up being a SAHM if it doesn't. ;)