Insane rant here so I don't wrap my hands around somebody's throat IRL.

Got the tubes for the Err Apparent after about fifty gallons of pink goo (ampicillin). Got back to my place, put on some Cheiftains music. He sat in rapture for about half an hour, didn’t move a muscle. Most everybody I know has had good results from the tubes.

The worst part is seeing your child in pain and you can’t fix it. After enough pink goo to drown a horse we went with the tubes and it was wonderful to see her happy, pain free and pooping normally again. Can’t recommend them enough.

Well, why don’t you hire a night nanny and put them at the other end of the house?

…joking!..My sympathies. I remember the pink goo. I particularly remember driving to pick up a prescription for my sickie, got home, found out the bottle was full of powder! pharmacist forgot to add water and shake. The idiot.

I was the kid in this situations, and I still remember some of it. Tubes are a godsend. Another thing that helped was irrigation, but that was mostly as I got older. I was at least in my teenage years before my ear infections stopped.

Thanks, Ogre. I now have yet another reason to appreciate my parents!

I had vents/tubes put in when I was 5 (along with a tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy), and that more or less solved the problem for me. Here’s hoping this clears up quickly for your little one.

It’s almost amusing. Fang cried up a fit with the nebulizer for ten to fifiteen minutes straight. The bright side was that he was so exhausted after the gassing, he would go right to sleep.

Now it’s Squeaky’s turn, and he loves the nebulizer. Actually, I think he loves that he has my undivided attention for ten to fifteen minutes. When you’re the youngest of three, I guess you take what you can get.

I think Ogre’s desires for his coworkers and whomever cut him off in traffic are missing important bits.

It ain’t “fuck you”. It’s “go get a blowjob from a rabid swordfish. In an acid bath.”

That would seem like the minimal penalty in this case, I do think.

People who say shit like that, IMHO, are the worst. As others have pointed out, until actually have kids you don’t, really, know what it’s like. Also, “knew it was going to be tough” does NOT magically erase extreme fatigue, worry, bills, responsibilities, and aggravation. It’s a bullshit response just a hair away from “nyah-nyah - neener neener”.

This would be adding needless stress to a baby who is already stressed out.

It’s not JUST the fact that the baby is crying and fussy. Nobody is getting enough sleep in that household, and this is going on over a period of time. And when the OP goes home, he knows that he’s not going to get any rest, let alone sleep, until his baby is better.

And ear tubes can be wonderful. Get the Ogreling a set ASAP.

This is why, as a single guy, I go straight to the “nyah-nyah - neener neener.”

I mean, why dance around it, right?

And that’s probably when Ogre would wrap his hands around your throat. Seriously, the guy is already stressed out. Sleep deprivation is used as torture.

Often by twenty-four pound dictators. Having kids is a young man’s game.

I second Lare. You probably can’t see it right now (and certainly you have no obligation to), but my guess is that the coworkers aren’t generally trying to make your situation out to be no big deal or one-up you but just establish as common of ground as they can.

Good luck with the tubes.

I hope your little one gets well soon, Ogre. I’ve luckily dodged that bullet with my two sons but I remember well ear infections of my own when I was a wee one…they fucking hurt.

:slight_smile:

Add that to the list when you lecture the ungrateful little shits. “Walked ten miles to school, in the snow, uphill both ways, with an ear infection!”

But really, what difference does it make how well they can hear when they don’t listen anyway?

This is one of the many reasons I treated myself to a vasectomy after the third. Another round of babies would most probably kill me. Or worse.

When we had to do the nebulizer, we did it when our son was asleep. We’d turn on some soft music so he wouldn’t wake up when the machine turned on and then we’d hold the mask over his face. He never woke up and it was so much better.

Ogre, I hope he feels better soon. I had chronic ear infections as a child and the tubes fixed everything. It’s hell listening to your baby cry from pain.

Wah…a Steven King fan!

In the case of parenthood, the sleep deprivation was something (essentially) the person opted for. So, can’t see it as torture.

I don’t have kids, can’t sympathize, and won’t pretend to.

My only combination question/suggestion is that there is no reason for both you and your wife to be getting essentially no sleep. You have to take care of yourselves. If you go with this kind of shitty sleep for a month and get sloppy at work, you might lose your job. Or you might wreck your car because you’re so fucking tired. Or you might get so ungodly frustrated that you put your kid down a little harder than you should (not all shaken babies got that way on purpose).

Is there any way that you guys can alternate nights caring for the kid, or something that at least allows one of you the option to sleep? Get a hotel room a couple nights a week? Have one of you sleep on a friend’s couch? There has got to be a better compromise than having two perpetually exhausted adults caring for one baby. Please investigate them.