Tonight

Got to spend some quality time at Urgent Care this evening. It's a parent's worst nightmare to be awakened in the middle of the night by the screams of pain associated with an ear infection. My youngest has been complaining of ear pain for a couple of days, but it hasn't been anything Motrin couldn't handle, so I haven't worried about having her seen. By this evening, she was crying in pain if I even touched the side of her head, so when Mike got home, I decided to take her in to avoid the middle-of-the-night misery I could see on the horizon.

Her last dose of Motrin had kicked in, so she was sound asleep at that point. I dragged her out of bed and got her into the car, where she proceeded to be the happiest sick kid ever seen (she did the same thing after being treated for pneumonia at 14 months old). We had quite the stimulating conversation about traffic lights on our way to the clinic. She played happily in the waiting room, which seemed busy, but we only waited about 30 minutes for her to be seen. The doctor checked her over (Dr. Barnett - she's great!) and told me that her ears are normal. She has a retraction in the eardrum in her right ear, which is most likely due to a difference in pressure in her head from having a stuffy nose, and that is probably what is causing the pain. I'm supposed to keep giving her Motrin as needed and see what happens. We're desperately keeping our fingers crossed that this goes away before we take her on a plane next week. I can only imagine the screams the pain would cause if it hasn't cleared yet.

So after our hour sojourn into the night, and much chatter about the moon and trains and traffic lights, we got home. She ate a few bites of a PB and J and went right back to sleep. Hopefully the rest of the night will pass peacefully.