First Ear Infection :(

Claire has her first ear infection - poor baby. She's had a runny nose and congestion for over a week, but it hadn't seemed like it was really bothering her until yesterday morning. We were having to really coax her to eat, and then she would only take 2-3 ounces where she normally takes 5 each time. Then she started getting really fussy - crying every time one of us put her down. We were planning to all go to San Antonio in the early afternoon, so I stayed busy packing while Robert consoled her and then got her down for a long nap. We woke her up a little before we were planning to leave and realized she was really hot, so we took her temperature - 102.6!

My pediatrician has a nurse advice line that is always staffed, so I called. The nurse listened to the symptoms and asked some questions. She didn't think that we need to worry, but said that anytime a 3-6 month old has a fever over 102 they should be seen by a doctor, so she told us to go to the urgent care center at Childrens' Hospital and that she would call ahead so that we would be in the computer. Since this was our first experience with needing to see a doctor outside of normal hours, I was really happy to learn that we didn't have to go to the ER. The care center is only available by referral, so we didn't have an exceptionally long wait - we were probably there an hour and a half total.

The advice nurse also told us to go ahead and give her some infant Tylenol, and by the time we got to the hospital she was already starting to act like herself again. When the triage nurse took her temperature, we were pleased to find that it was back down in the 98's. The doctor checked her out and said that Claire was in the early stages of an ear infection, and that it was good we went ahead and came in so that she could get started on medication before it got bad. One of her eyes had also started getting really watery and a little goopy, and the doctor said that it was all related. They cleaned out Claire's nose really good and sent us home with a prescription for an antibiotic.

Robert had to go on, so we called Nana (my mom) to see if she could come and then ride with Claire and me to San Antonio on Tuesday (closing for the SA house is Wednesday morning). She was available and happy to come, so we were able to postpone the long car ride for Claire until she felt better. She did pretty good last night. She only woke twice - once for some cuddling, and once to take a full bottle. So glad she got her appetite back! Today she slept more than usual, but was back to her normal happy self when she was awake. I don't think it will be long until she makes a full recovery!