An All-Nighter, and Another First

Monday's playdate was fun because we had a new friend join us, Clark. Clark's daddy works with Duane and I met her mommy at a company get-together. Clark is such a sweetie. Clark and Dax were born on the same day, incidentally, and they are exactly the same height. It's cute. Dax really liked her, too - after they had been playing for a while, he just got up, out of the blue, and hugged her. It was sweet.

But Monday night, when Duane got home, Dax was kind of grumpy. And he was pulling on his left ear so much that it was red. But Duane is great at getting Dax to laugh, so they played and everything was fine through dinner. But come bedtime, Dax was grumpy again. We took his temperature and it was only 99.4, but we gave him some Tylenol anyway and put him down. But he wouldn't go to sleep. He just kept crying. So, Duane went in and rocked him. That worked for a few minutes, then he was crying again. So, I tried. Same thing. So, after an hour and half of trying things, we decided he was over-tired and a car ride would help him fall asleep. After a few minutes on 183, sure enough, he was out. But when we tried to move him back in to his crib, he woke up and was crying again. So I held him and rocked him and walked with him and fed him, and did everything else you could imagine. For hours! He would get quiet, then start crying and just kicking his legs in pain. It was awful. Finally, we laid on the couch and he rested for maybe 30 minutes, but he was clearly uncomfortable (this is now around 3am). At 4:00, he was crying again. And his temperature was 103. When I tried to give him more Tylenol, he gagged and threw up all over himself, me, and his lamb. So, we got to clean everything up and try to settle down again. Finally, around 5:00am, Dax relaxed enough and was able to fall asleep. It's been a long time since I've seen THAT side of 5:00am. I saw plenty of it this past year-and-a-half, thanks to Dax, but this was the worst. He actually slept well until 11:00 (and I managed to get a couple hours in, myself). We headed right over to the pediatrician. His first ear infection. And not just any ear infection; oh no - a double ear infection with one bulging ear drum and one already ruptured. Poor kid sure got wholluped good. But, I'll tell you, those drugs are amazing. After the first dose he perked right up and he hasn't looked back since. He took a good nap Tuesday afternoon, ate a good dinner, went to bed at his regular time, and slept all night. Thank God for modern medicine!