Ears and Those Darned Infections

Thursday night I thought for sure that the worst of the teeth pain for his two new top incisors was over. I thought that a better nights sleep was going to take place. Boy was I wrong! He went to bed around 7:00 p.m. and then was up at 9:47 p.m. Crying in what seemed like utter pain. Wailing. I had given him teething tablets before he went to bed. So I put teething gel on his gums when he woke up and I tried to rock him back to sleep but he wasn't having it, so I nursed him, which calmed him right down and he fell asleep. He woke up less than two hours later. Wailing. I changed his diaper. Mike came in and held him and he seemed to calm down but every time we put him down he would start wailing again. Poor fella. I was racking my brain trying to think of what else could be wrong because I had never seen him in so much pain over his teeth. I figured he was having a hard time breathing with his head cold/cough and perhaps that he had a sore throat. He didn't feel hot but I took his temp. No fever. I tried nursing him, he wouldn't nurse. I thought maybe it was the bread he ate earlier that day, maybe he was having an averse reaction to wheat. So I rubbed his belly and that seemed to calm him down and he fell back asleep. He woke up again a few hours later, crying in pain again. I decided to give him acetaminophen for pain. This seemed to help although he woke up every two hours still, but not crying as hard each time and he never nursed, which is unusual. When he woke up for the day, crying, he felt hot so I took his temp again, 101.1° F. I called his daycare and my work telling them that Stanbear and I wouldn't be there due to his fever. I called the pediatrician and she asked us to come in at 10:15 a.m. So we hung out at home and he fell asleep on my nap (he hasn't done that since he was a wee wee thing) and then drove to the doctor's office. They weighed him, he weighs 22 lbs. still. His lungs sounded clear, thank goodness. His right ear looked o.k. other than a big wax ball in there! His left ear....infected. His very first ear infection. So antibiotics and ibuprofen. The ibuprofen kicked in and my cheery little gnome was back to himself for awhile, despite the temporarily hidden pain in his ear. I hope he sleeps better tonight.

UPDATE:
He did sleep better that night. We have ceased the Ibuprofen early this morning to see how his fever and pain level were. I decided to give him acetaminophen instead because his poops were dark green tending toward black and I was reading about that and the things I read mentioned ibuprofen/ulcers/blood in stool, you know, fun stuff. So I stopped giving him the Ibuprofen. I called the ped this morn to see what she thought, just waiting back for a call. Other than that he is doing better. I just hope he doesn't have to do another round of antibiotics and/or a stronger medicine. Send us healing energies into his little ear canals and into his middle ear!

Image from http://www.hearingaid-specialist.org