Sick and Tired of...sick and tired

One of my biggest parenting fears became a reality a few days ago. Ear infections. Ok, I know they don't sound all that terrible. In fact, they are a rather common childhood occurrence. But for me that doesn't make them any less scary.

I have dreaded the day when my child would get an ear infection for several reasons:
1. Especially for young babies who can't talk, it's hard to know that they even have an ear infection for sure without taking them into the doctor.
2. I hate seeing my babies in pain, and I've heard that's some of the worst childhood pain.
3. I have a huge paranoia that my child will lose her hearing because her infection will get so bad.

Both Kayla and Elise have had nasty colds and coughs for the past 2 weeks or so. Kayla got it first, and Elise followed several days later. This is the kind of cold that is bad enough by itself without having an ear infection on top of it. You know, the kind where huge masses of green gloop pour out their noses and they cough as though they have been smoking for the past 50 years or so? This also happens to be the kind of cold that requires Mom or Dad to be constantly wiping some of that green goop off their upper lip before they make a habit of eating it or rubbing it in their hair. As a result, the children usually develop very chaffed noses which makes them very resistant to having their nose wiped at all. This usually leads to either a lot of crying and both of the above mentioned "habits". Gross, and gross!

Needless to say, we were having a bad enough time with the nasty colds and the cough. Did I mention that this cough wracks the entire body and offers little chance of sleeping more than a couple hours in a row without being awoken and becoming very disgruntled? Right. In the midst of that fun, Kayla awoke at 2am one night screaming and crying hysterically. We tried to calm her down so she could tell us what was wrong. This process took quite awhile, but when she finally told us the problem, I knew my fear had just become a reality. She had an ear infection.

I don't often give the kids tylenol or pain relievers, but this was definitely the time for it. She finally settled down and the medicine took it's desired effect and gave her some relief so she could sleep. And sleep she did. Until 10am the next morning.

I took both girls down the hill that day to see the doctor. They both had ear infections for which we received some amoxicillin. I also restocked on Tylenol and since then our lives have been much more stress-free and sleep filled. The girls are still not 100%, but at least the road to recovery will be paved with less crying, less discomfort, and more sleep for everyone.