Poor, Poor Sick Baby

There is nothing sadder than a baby who's sick and just can't understand what's going on. You really have to have so much compassion for them. Usually, when a baby cries, Mom or Dad relieves their distress. They feed them, change a diaper, etc and the problem goes away. But what happens when the crying doesn't work? When you cry and cry and Mom or Dad can't make it better?? You really have to wonder what they're thinking. Son and DIL took Emily to the doctor on Wednesday and she was diagnosed with an ear infection in one ear and fluid in the other. They gave her some amoxicillan and sent her on her merry way. But the antibiotic didn't work. On Thursday around 6pm, DIL called. She was out of ideas. Emily wouldn't eat, wouldn't sleep and wouldn't drink. They'd tried everything and nothing worked. When she told me Emily hadn't had any wet diapers all day, I was concerned. Dehydration comes on quickly in babies. I advised her to call the doctor. Half an hour later, she called back. The doctor wanted to see her. Son was stuck at work so I told her I'd come get them. Hubby was about 2 minutes from home, so I waited for him and we went and got DIL and Emily. The poor thing. She cried. and cried. and cried. and cried. She literally cried all the way to the doctor's office. A 45 minute drive. Nothing we did would make her calm down. Sometimes it was screaming, but mostly it was just that monotonous crying. ahh ahh ahh ahh I felt so bad I thought my heart would break. The doctor checked her ears and said now both ears were badly infected. Apparently the amoxicillan didn't touch it. So they gave her something stronger. And told them to try Motrin instead of tylenol. We stopped at the 24 hour pharmacy to get the antibiotic so she could have a dose before bed. I told them it needed to be filled ASAP as the baby was in the car screaming. It still took them 25 minutes! I thought I might have to reach over and ripped someone's head off, and I wasn't even the one in the car with the screaming baby. We gave her the antibiotic and motrin immediately and started the long drive home. Emily quieted after about 15 minutes, and fell asleep two minutes from home. Figures. I babysat this morning. She did pretty well. She's very hoarse from all the crying, but she was in a pretty good mood. She played. She ate some yogurt and some pudding. I force fed her as much water as she would tolerate. It seems (knock on wood) like the antibiotic is working. I hope she's turned the corner. Poor baby.