Sleep talking signs

Well, friends and neighbors, it has been a really strange day that followed a pretty outrageously strange and bizarre night. The kids were out of school today, thank God for random off school days. I was able to snooze the alarm for almost a half hour. It felt good. It felt realy good. The boy came in and snuggled with us for a while, but the quiet couldn't last long. Because of the day off, we had a breakfast meeting, room setup at church, back to back dental appointents scheduled, several haircuts, birthday cake baking and soccer practices all shoved into one day. At 8am, we went our separate ways: I went to church to set up the baby room for Sunday and the hub with the kids to Panera for a meeting. After I was done, I met the family at everyone's favorite bagel bistro for breakfast and planning. As soon as I sat down, the boy came up to me saying he needed to go to the potty. I sent him on his way and went to get my first cup of dark roast. By the time I got back, he was teary and holding his tummy. We took another trip to the facilities where the truth came out. His ear hurt every time he swallowed and his head hurt so bad that it made his stomach hurt. We washed hands, obsessively used paper towels to open the door and headed down the street to the walk in clinic. As I held him for 40minutes, I watched him go downhill health wise in the course of those 40 minutes. The kid sitting across from us spent the whole 40 minutes abusing a Rubik's cube, complaining about what a waste of time it was, all the time lacking the ability to complete even one side. One side! When the NP mercifully called us into the exam room, the boy hopped on the table, told her exactly what hurt and stopped talking. She is not my favorite person as we had seen her before. When she took a little thing and jammed it into his ear to move some wax aside, my son lost his mind. He burst into tears, grabbing his his leg and squeezing it while she looked in there. As a mother, I wanted to throat punch her, scoop my baby up and flee. But I didn't. Double ear infection with a 103.5 fever. Hanging head in shame. Next came getting the prescription which ended up being handled by the hub. The poor kid was so dizzy and feverish, he couldn't stand upright so we went home. Sweet G played nurse like a champ. I went in to find her changing him into his pajamas, giving him some crackers for a snack and rubbing his feet. She held him while I put some vintage(I say that because they were on our beds back in the '70's)Star Trek sheets over the couch cushions so he wouldn't be so hot. After leaving the room for a minute, I heard him start crying about his head. Fever had spiked again and his head was killing him. I soothed him and got him comfy again. After leaving a second time, I was summoned once again by Nurse G to tell me he had spewed. I went in to find hell hath no fury on vintage Spock and Kirk sheets like ginger ale-saltine barf. Set phasers to stun, I was impressed. So we had to strip him down, strip the sheet off, strip the couch cushion. Yuck. I have learned my lesson. He is just one of those children who will always get sick with high fever and the headache that accompanies it.

The pieces all fit together once I thought about it. The past 3 or 4 times he has gotten an ear infection, the strangest thing has happened. He gets uber chatty in his sleep. Sounds crazy, but it is almost clockwork. Sleeptalking, two days later, ear infection. He just didn't show pain until this morning. I know. Add it to your file. Hopefully we will have an uneventful night, but I have the rice bag ready to microwave and put on those cute little ears if necessary.

Thanks for listening to every gory detail of a strange day. Lesson learned about vintage Star Trek sheets. My son is a great patient. My daughter is an even greater nurse. She even wiped stuff off his hands and face. And not crackers. Well...crackers in some form. Live long and prosper.


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