A Mother’s Intuition

Mother’s Intuition is an interesting thing.  How is it that I know the exact second that Jack is going to try and open the Xbox?  Or how do I know that Xander will learn to crawl when we are on vacation?  And how about this, how did I know that my kid had an ear infection, even though the doctor said no way?  Ok, fine, any reasonable person would have deduced that he had an ear infection, but let me win this one, ok?

One day last week, I noticed Xander playing with his ear.  I quietly swore to  myself.  The last thing any of us needed was another ear infection.  And although I just knew what was brewing, I decided that unless he had any other signs, I was just going to assume that he was OK.  That worked fairly well until early Friday morning when he woke up with a low-grade fever.  By 2:00 that afternoon, his fever was up to 102.3 and he was definitely tugging at his ears.

I was certain that Xander had at least one ear infection and I wanted to avoid another screaming in the middle of the night incident.  All the signs were there, so there was no reason to wait until he woke up screaming in pain.  I called the pediatrician and we were at the office a couple hours later.

The doctor came in, took a good long look in Xander’s ears and declared them to be clear.  I swear the only time I was more shocked was when I found out that Jack was breech five days before his due date.  After a look in his mouth, she said that his throat was a little red, but not terrible.  We were ordered to ride out the fever and call back if it didn’t break within four or five days.  As we walked out the door, I almost told the doctor that we would see her in a few days because I *knew* Xander had an ear infection.

Saturday came and went with a fussy Xander wanting to be held most of the day.  He also wasn’t eating a ton.  Sure signs of an impending (or existing) ear infection.  That night, he went to bed without a fight.  Just as my husband and I were headed upstairs to bed, I heard it.  The unmistakable screaming of a little boy with an ear infection.

I ran upstairs and was greeted by a pissed off, fevery baby who was in pain.  Unfortunately, when he is like this, he basically needs held down as you force the mortrin into his mouth.  Only this time, the kid is getting smarter.  He didn’t swallow the first squirt, he spit it back out at me.  Right in the eye.  In case you have never had infant motrin in your eye, let me tell you, that shit stings.  A lot.  My only guess is he wanted me to feel a little bit of the pain he was feeling.  Poor baby.

Sadly, I am getting much better at getting him medicated, calmed down and back to sleep.  It took about an hour.  He fell asleep about 10 minutes after I started singing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star to him over and over again.  I am fairly certain the only reason he fell asleep was so that I would stop singing.

So here we are, with our 3rd (technically, it’s probably 4, but I’m not counting the ear infection that he had 2 days after he finished his antibiotic) ear infection in four months.  Each time Xander gets teeth, he gets an ear infection.  This is new territory for me.  Jack has had maybe 3 ear infections his whole life and now this many ear infections so quickly seems like a lot.  I’m not sure what to do from here other than pray that his teeth come in quickly and without any more incident.  I just hate that it seems like I have to wait until he wakes up screaming and in pain before the ear infections are visible.

This foot is delicious

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