As I mentioned in my last post, the boys were scheduled for their checkup at the Pediatrician's last Friday. While he was supposed to go to the appointment with us, M got stuck with a work thing at the last minute so my sister volunteered to go with me to wrangle the kids instead. (The one time I took them by myself it was a huge pain and they were both terribly crabby afterward because of the inoculations they received.) Anyway, both boys were found to be in good health with Max weighing in at a little over 13 pounds and Nathan weighing in at a staggering 16 pounds (that kid really loves his food.) The ped encouraged me to also start feeding the boys lunch every day in addition to the breakfast and dinner they were already getting. He also agreed with me once again to split up their inoculations so that they would get two at that appointment and an additional two in a few weeks.
On Sunday afternoon, I noticed that Nathan had become incredibly fussy, which he hasn't really been for over two months since we started him on medication for his reflux. When I went to pick him up as he continued to fuss in his bouncy I noticed that his poor little head felt exceptionally hot and I knew right away that he had a fever. A quick check with a thermometer confirmed that Nathan's temperature was 102.4, and I quickly called the pediatrician. He didn't seem to think that it was related to the Hib shots the boys had been given a few days prior and told me to give him Motrin and continue monitoring his fever.
As a first time mom I of course had no real clue what to do with a sick and cranky baby. I tried to keep him comfortable and distracted, but he seemed pretty persistent in his misery and cried for almost two nights straight. The pediatrician's office didn't really have any advice as to what I could do for him other than continuing to push the Motrin, and they scoffed at things like cool baths or swaddling to make him feel better. My mom, dad and sister helped me out with the boys Monday and Tuesday during the day while M was at work, because Nathan would lose it the minute I put him down or walked away. While I tried to explain to him that I also needed to care for his brother he would respond with a despondent wail, and I gratefully took whatever help was being offered. The last straw was when Nathan's fever spiked to 103.5 on Tuesday evening and I panicked, called the pediatrician again, and made an appointment for him to go back in the following day.
Because the pediatrician had been pretty confident that it was just a cold I had pretty much assumed that Nathan would get a quick check and that we would be sent on our way. Instead, the ped found that the boy had a double ear infection. (Yes, both ears. Apparently this boy doesn't do anything half way.) Thankfully the antibiotics started working pretty quickly and Nathan has been back to his old self for a few days now. The only catch (of course there has to be one) is that I'm allergic to his antibiotics so whenever he drools on me after taking the sticky pink liquid I break out in a rash wherever his drool makes contact with my skin.
Here's a shot of him hanging out on the couch yesterday.
I would say he definitely looks like he's on the way to a full recovery.
Now that Nathan's feeling better, M and I are struggling to get both he and Max back on track at night. The holidays totally screwed up these boys' sleeping habits, and Max often refuses to go back to sleep after their middle of the night feeding (instead he likes to lay in his crib chattering away to himself and playing with his feet.) Both M and the pediatrician want me to eliminate their 3am-ish nursing session, and I've been hoping that I can slowly get them to phase it out without drastic intervention like Crying it Out. M is a fan of the Weissbluth extinction method, but the ped doesn't like Weissbluth at all and is more of a Ferber fan. I don't like either, and would prefer to slowly get the boys used to putting themselves to sleep and soothing themselves back to sleep during late night wakings. I've been having some success with getting them to slowly move their middle of the night feeding later and later (it was as early as 12:30 a few months ago and this morning they didn't wake for nursing until 4am.) Any advice or insight out there from the Moms who've been following my story would be greatly appreciated!
