Ear Infection!

Poor Laurel has a pretty nasty ear infection. I have to say, I was not surprised, although she wasn't really showing signs of ear pain until last night. Ear infection means yet another course of antibiotics, and this time it's stronger, chalky white, and clearly disgusting. Yay. I can't wait to wrestle Laurel twice a day for the next 9 days.

Last night was awful. She was up every hour, didn't want to lie in her bed. Or our bed. Or sit in my lap. She took tiny spoonfuls of ice water and cried and cried. By my best calculations I think I slept for maybe two hours all night. Total. And not in a row. The weird thing was that the fatigue didn't really hit me. All day at work I was thinking, I should be more tired. I crashed on the couch the second Laurel went to bed and slept hard all through the Steeler game. I woke up oddly refreshed around 11:30 and caught the last 40 seconds. (It was exciting. We won.)

Tomorrow I'm going to stay home with her, which is why I am ok with being awake at 12:52 am. Napping is definitely in my plan, although I will also work on reigning in the chaos that descends upon one's house when there is illness. Clean laundry piled up on every flat surface in my bedroom. Bedsheets in need of changing. A bathtub begging to be scrubbed.

Watching your kid get sick is one of the worst things about parenting. I hated holding Laurel while she whimpered through her fever this weekend. Usually picking her up is the cure-all for anything that makes her cry. This time I couldn't make her feel better without an array of bottles of sticky liquid medicine, and even that wasn't so effective. Having a sick kid makes me want to quit my job immediately. It's hard to remember that although daycare can be a hotbed of germs, it's also not the only place for germs. Even if I stay home with her, she could -and would- still pick up something at the park, the library, the grocery store...riding on the bus, etc.

Before bed tonight, she played with her birthday presents and we had an exciting game of hide and go seek. Her impish little grin appeared on her face again. She ate some cheerios. I would love it if this would be the last ear infection, but this is number three in four months, so my guess is that we have a visit to an ENT in our future.