Little Ears

We've spent a lot of time focused on SJ's ears lately. She had her 2nd (and final) cochlear implant activated yesterday. So she is hearing bilateral now. YEA! Thank God everything went smoothly and both surgeries were successful without any complications or infections. Ironically, baby E is the one that ended up with the ear trouble this week.



None of my kids have ever dealt with ear infections, so when E wasn't acting like himself we couldn't figure out what the problem was. He was so upset on Saturday night that on Sunday morning we kept him home from church even though he didn't have a fever. I was worried that my easy going baby had turned into a colicky bundle of discontent and when the Doctor couldn't get him in on Monday they suggesting bringing him to an urgent care so I did.

Sure enough the Doctor cringed when he looked in E's ears. He has a double ear infection and ruptured eardrums. I have heard of people bursting their eardrums and I knew it was painful, but I never realized how common it is or that the eardrum heals itself. E didn't burst his eardrums, for if he had it would have brought relief from the pressure, he did tear them though. I knew his cry sounded like he was in pain. J and I both agreed on that and our parenting instincts were right, but it's still sad to confirm that the shrieking and screaming meant he was suffering.

The doctor and I talked for a bit and I learned that he and I are alike in that we are both really cautious and conservative when it comes to antibiotics especially with a little baby, but in this case there was no way around it. This makes E by far the youngest of my 3 children to ever be on antibiotics. Z and SJ were well past 2 years old when they had to take anything. Either way I am grateful there is a remedy for what he is dealing with. He hasn't had any Tylenol today and he seems to be back to his usual bubble self, which means I am a little more bubbly too.