It’s been a rough few weeks since Adam’s birthday, healthwise. We’ve been to the pediatrician at least 5 times in the last 3 weeks for fun things like pinkeye and ear infections. It started with Avery waking up from a nap with her eye glued shut and looking like she’d been through a tornado on the Thursday after Adam’s party. Dr. C took one look at her and gave her eyedrops and an oral antibiotic for the upper respiratory part of her cold. She got better very quickly after that. A few days later, the boys were cranky and miserable and not sleeping at night, so we were back in the office suspicious that they had ear infections to go with their coughs and runny noses. Alex had a horrible cough and it was preventing him from sleeping. Adam’s nose was a little snot faucet – so gross. Their ears were clear, but Adam had a questionable cough and was given a 5 day antibiotic. He threw up every dose, and spent Easter Sunday glued to me, whining and not eating other than to nurse every hour or two around the clock. That Monday he was found to have an ear infection and got good old amoxicillin, and I was diagnosed with a sinus infection and got the same medicine. I’ve never had a sinus infection before – wow are they painful. I woke up in the middle of the night feeling like every tooth on the top left side was going to fall out of my head. Slowly but surely, we all recovered.

Everyone seemed relatively healthy over this past weekend and we were all able to enjoy the weather as Don and Uncle Bill built the new playground – more on that to come soon. But over the last week, I’d also noticed that Alex seemed to be having trouble hearing. Don noticed it too on Friday – half the time we’d tell him something, Alex would either ignore it or look at us and ask, “What you said?” or “You said yes or no?” when we’d answer a question of his. We called the doctor and had yet another appointment this morning. I was really worried that he was losing his hearing somehow. When I got to the office, the receptionist fell all over herself apologizing because she’d scheduled me not realizing that they don’t do hearing assessments in that office for kids under 4 years old. I asked her to keep the appointment anyway in the hopes that maybe he just had a lot of wax buildup or something. Turns out, his ears are a hot mess. Both of them are infected and filled with fluid, and the left one (the one Alex said he couldn’t hear out of) is draining. Yuck. Somehow I missed that in my home inspections. But he swears his ears don’t hurt, and the nurse, doctor, and I are amazed at that. He’s really been acting fine, so maybe he has some superhuman pain tolerance. Who knows. At any rate, he’s on a megadose of antibiotics now and we have to go back in 2 weeks to see if the fluid is gone from his middle ear.

And just when we thought we were safe, Avery has developed a nasty, itchy red rash on her neck and arms. I think it’s a sensitivity to the adult sunscreen she wore Sunday and Monday, but I’m not sure since it seems to be getting worse and she had baths both nights, so it shouldn’t still be on her skin. We gave her benedryl and some hydrocortisone tonight, but if it looks bad in the morning, we’ll be back at the doctor again. Ugh. I like the doctors and staff, but seeing them this often is not fun!