Today I'm a Nurse.

I was wrong.  Britt isn't teething.  Well, she might be, but probably not.  She's been running a temperature for going on three days now.  Plus the icky nose, drool, sleepless nights and cranky disposition.  All of those are symptoms Ash experienced while teething.  What else was I to think??  Well, Britt's been sleeping a TON!  But not at night and she just seems so tired anyways.  She woke up this morning with a goopy eye and a loud, angry ROAR.  Yikes!  Not getting better and no sign of a tooth anywhere.  So, I decided to take her temp.  It was 103!  Not a teething temp.  As you can imagine, off to the doctor we went as fast as we could.

My poor Britt-Britt has pink eye (in both eyes), and ear infection (in both ears) and is dehydrated.  I feel so bad for her!!  Ash has never had antibiotics.  And I hate to give them to Britt so soon, but she's so little and could have been dealing with this for days, for all we know.  So - she's got cream for her eyes, amoxicillin and garlic/mullein drops for her ears, extra probiotics to keep the antibiotics from giving her thrush, clear pedialyte for her dry diapers, and motrin (hopefully will work better than the tylenol) for nights. 

So - here's what else I've learned (figure I might as well pass it along):

• Everyone's pain tolerance and immune system goes down at night, which is why everyone sleeps worse at night when they are sick or in pain, yet naps tend to happen without a hitch and are very beneficial. 

• Babies will, sometimes, chew on their fingers (looks like teething) to relieve the pressure in their ears.

• Putting cold, wet, wrung-dry socks (and then slippers over those) on the feet of someone with a fever will draw the fever down from their head.  We'll be trying this trick tonight.

• If none of the teething remedies work, your baby probably isn't teething.  Duh.

• Do not, I repeat, do NOT try to wrestle the garlic drops into your child's ears while sitting on your side of the bed.  You will end up spilling the bottle all over your sheets and then your bed will smell.  Bad. 

No rest for the wicked, that's for sure!