Friday, February 1, 2013

Ear Infections and Plumbing Problems

First off, some important milestones!  Adrian, as mellow as he is, is never in a hurry to do anything.  He took his first steps ages ago, but then showed no desire to actually walk.  He is so efficient at crawling that he prefers that to move around over walking.  So, for the longest time, he walked like Frankenstein and only took a few shaky steps before tumbling over frontwards, sideways, backwards, or whatever.  Finally, two days ago, he walked clear across the room, turned himself around, and was able (or willing, perhaps I should say) to toddle around.  That same day, he also looked at me very clearly and said "mama"--and he did it various times.  If I say it, he'll repeat it to me too.  Yeah!!!!!  Sebastian is still not talking, although the early intervention lady who worked with him yesterday says he handed Adrian a toy and said "here."  Hmmmmm.  Not sure about that. 

Both boys were sick last week--first Adrian.  Daycare called me to go get him.  The fever went away in 24 hours, but they have to be fever-free for 24 hours before they can go back to daycare.  Phooey.  Then, Sebastian was sick with the same thing.  I took him to the pediatrician because I was worried about an ear infection and his ears were fine but he had the flu!!  (They do a swab test.)  Even the pediatrician was surprised based on how good he looked and how he was acting.  Flu shot worked!  Anyway, both boys got over the "flu" very quickly, thank God. 

But then yesterday I had a follow up appointment for Adrian with the pediatrician.  The doctor wanted to see both boys for an ear re-check to make sure that the last ear infection they had (about a month ago) had cleared up.  We checked Sebastian's ears last week so I just had to bring Adrian in.  Well, I even tried to cancel the appointment the day before because Adrian was fine and I've taken so much time off from work.  But they guilt tripped me at the pedi into keeping the appointment.  Good thing I went--he had a moderate ear infection in BOTH ears when the doctor checked yesterday.  Again, he was surprised given how calm Adrian was and how well he's sleeping.  Also no fever or anything.  So we started antibiotics again.  As I was dropping Adrian off at the daycare, I called the pedi back and asked if I could bring Sebastian back to have his ears checked again too...he had been super fussy the night before and also woke at 4am.  So off I went with my other son back to the pediatrician.  And, turns out my instincts were right--he also had a mild ear infection in one ear.  So both boys are back on antibiotics.  I think that if this happens one more time we may need tubes.  It's at least urgent to have the conversation with the pediatrician the next time we're in there for an ear infection.  Hopefully these will go away.  It's not that clear whether Adrian's still got the same infection he had a month ago (and it never went away) or if this is a new one.  I really thought he had gotten much better after the course of and antibiotics and he has been sick after the ear infection so I think it's a new one, but he doctor thought it could very well be the same one.  So I sure hope that the antibiotics work or we're not going to have any fun getting rid of the ear infection Adrian has--he's already taking Augmentin, which is strong stuff.  :(

In the midst of all this, we were moving and trying to unpack, and the hot water in the new house hasn't been working right.  We finally got a plumber out there yesterday to check it out and it looks like the hot water regulator on the furnace needs to be replaced.  You turn on the water, it gets hot, and after a few seconds it goes luke warm.  My poor boys have had luke-warm baths for the past few days.  The plumber had to go to a supply warehouse to find the part (and it was already closed yesterday when he came to the house) so he's supposed to come back this afternoon and get us some hot water.  Will be nice to actually enjoy showering again and to be able to let the boys play in the tub a bit! 

I guess they say every time you move into a new house you find some problem that didn't show up in the inspection.  Hopefully this is the extent of ours--$100 problem is not too bad.  Fingers crossed that's it!

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