Not Enough Life Experience

In my last post, we were 6 days into the 1st round of antibiotics. On day 7, we went back to the doc for a check and he said that they were not the slightest bit better. He changed Alice to a different antibiotic and wanted to see her in a week. So on day 7 of the 2nd round of antibiotics we were back at the doctor. This time, he said that her ears were starting to look abscessed. He said that the infection was not clearing up at all and that the meds were only keeping it from moving into her lungs and causing pneumonia. He changed her yet another antibiotic and told me that we had to get to the ENT to talk about tubes. So, on Monday, we went to the ENT. Our sweet girl slept through all the tests and only started to wake up when the doctor was finishing his exam. The ENT said that her ears did not look as bad as he was expecting but that there was definitely fluid behind her ear drums. He felt that she is still too young to decide whether or not she will grow out of the ear infections. (He actually said that she does not have enough life experience to decide this - lolol). He wants us to finish the 3rd round of meds and to come back in 3 weeks. Depending on how her ears look at that time, we will talk about tubes.


As I have said, Alice remains pretty cheerful and happy through all of this. Having said that, she started getting more fussy this weekend and has been tugging on her ears a lot lately. We have been giving her baby Tylenol which she does not like. Just when you think she has finally swallowed it, she spits it out. Maybe the meds are working and starting to break up or maybe they are getting worse. I have no idea. The doctor said that we would get her back to normal soon, which made me think that we have no idea what normal is! If Alice has continued to be happy through 2 months of ear infections, how will she be when she is not sick at all? :) very very happy baby!!


John and I are so amazed at the coordination changes in Alice. Last month, she was just a little blob in the exersaucer and now she is pulling and moving all the toys. She LOVES this little mirror thing that is supposed to be tied to a crib. I tied it to her gym-mat so she can play without having to deal with Mommy and Daddy holding the mirror the wrong way. She is so expressive. When we show her a new toy, her eyes get big and she sort of gasps...as if she is saying "Hey, I know that cool toy!" She is also sucking on anything and everything. If you look at the 4th picture, you can see a leaf on the apple she has in her mouth. So often we have to squeeze all the spit out of it. Pretty gross - now we know exactly how she is getting the cold bugs from daycare - sucking on other babies spit. Hey, I thought swapping spit was not supposed happen until she was a teenager!!


Alice is eating like a champ! She has rice cereal and fruit or veggies with formula at breakfast, lunch and dinner then has bottles to fill in the gaps (usually about 6-8 bottles) throughout the day. So far she will eat, applesauce, pears, bananas, carrots, sweet potatoes, and squash. She does not like peas at all. We have some green beans that we will probably try soon and also prunes. Do you think that the prunes will have the same effect on her that they are supposed to have on adults? Maybe we will skip prunes... We bought peaches but I have heard from other mothers that they are really acidic so we will wait on that too. Since Alice's current medicine is cherry flavor and she takes that with breakfast and dinner, she has fruit at those meals with the veggie for lunch at daycare. Before I thought about the flavor combination, we had a disastrous meal of cherry meds and sweet potatoes.....oh what a face!!!

Whew....guess I had a lot to say. Hope you are all having a good week. I will keep the ear updates coming.