Pulled an all nighter

I have been a mummy for just over 8 years and for the first time ever last time I pulled an all nighter with a sick kid. (not counting the night of Rosie's heart surgery). Thems are good odds!

At 11-ish last night Rosie appeared at the top of the stairs and was crying, sobbing in fact. I whisked her into my arms and bought her down to the couch with Jacob and I. She sat with us for a few minutes and I tried to work out what was wrong. Finally I decided she must have had a bad dream. We went back up to bed and within minutes I could hear her crying. I bought her back downstairs and we sat for a while. Finally she stopped crying and managed to say that her ear and cheek hurt.

Jacob and I just looked at each other with dread. I gave her some motrin and went to bed with her. Even in her sleep she cried. By 4.00am I knew things were getting worse and not better so I rang the Doctor. Even at 4.00am someone answered the phone. I love our pediatrician. I talked with the nurse and she told me to give her a "large" dose of ibuprofen and if her temp went over 104 then I was to take her to the ER. In the meantime everything else I was doing was fine and we were to head into the office at 8.30. The larger than usual dose of medicine numbed the pain enough for her to fall asleep for an hour it didn't however touch the fever she now had.

The doctor showed Jacob and I her ear and it was nasty. She was very surprised that it hadn't ruptured and told us to expect it to. Alrighty then. We filled her prescriptions took our instructions and bought a sore and sad Rosie home. I laid her on the couch and offered her some lunch, she wasn't biting. She fell fast asleep instead so I hightailed it to my bed for a quick kip. I hadn't even fallen asleep when I heard screaming. I bolted downstairs and Jacob was carrying a very distressed Rosie up to me.I tried everything to comfort her, hot water bottle, pain drops etc but no go she just cried and writhed in pain for about 2 hours. Suddenly all was quiet and she was sleeping, soundly. I snuck out of bed and went about my day, checking on her periodically. She was sleeping on her nasty ear so I couldn't see if there was any blood but I pretty much knew by the way she was screaming that the tympanic membrane had ruptured.

I was right. When she woke up she was all bloody and in much better spirits but as deaf as a haddock. Jacob rang the Dr. again and she changed all her meds and he ran out to get the new ones. As the day progressed she got quite perky and by bathtime she was actually giggling again.

She isn't eating, she is drinking. Her fever is still up but she feels better. Now we just wait and see if she gets any permanent damage from this. I seriously doubt it. I can't even tell you how many times that happened to me when I was little and I am fine. She can't get used to not hearing out of one ear, it's quite sweet to see her furrow her brow and try to work out what is going on.

Oh both ears are infected but only the left is truly nasty.

Sleeping peacefully for 3+ hours. At first she had to sit up because laying down just made the pressure so much worse. She has slipped off of the pillows here and is far into the land of nod.

And of course we received the obligatory "your child was not in school today, please ring this number ******* immediately and send a doctors note with your child tomorrow", phone call.
She isn't going to school tomorrow, I wonder if they will come knocking on the door.