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

[terryobrien80]

@Ogre

I have an 11-month old. Currently, he is on his 4th round of antibiotics for a persistent ear infection. If this fails, it’s time for tubes. My wife and I are worried sick. The Ogreling is absolutely miserable. His ear hurts. Nothing helps. He has a nasty cough and sinus drainage. Now, because of the antibiotics, he has severe intestinal issues. Diarrhea, vomiting, cramps, and gas. We’re trying to replace some of the flora with yogurt and culturelle, but the shit we’re pumping into him to kill the ear infection is destroying the good stuff faster than it can be replaced.

He has been alternating between a low whine, miserable crying, and outright screaming for about 3 days now. No one in the house has slept for more than a couple of hours since Friday.

So I get to work (late) this morning, after having to leave early (doctor’s visit) yesterday, unshaven, red-eyed, and barely hanging on to my temper by a thread. Seriously, I had some very, very dark thoughts about the moron who cut me off in traffic this morning.

So, to my boss, who is single and whose dog woke him up last night, so he thinks he understands: FUCK YOU.

To my office-mates, who are young, hard-partying singles, and who think they understand because they stayed out too late at their favorite bar last night: FUCK YOU.

To the needy colleague who has interrupted me no less than 4 times this morning: FUCK YOU. OK, maybe not, you’re actually OK, but GO ASK SOMEONE ELSE.

To the asshole (single, uncommitted, selfish bastard) colleague who had the temerity, after asking me what was wrong, to look me in the eye and say, “Well, you knew having a kid would be tough!”:

Well, FUCK YOU isn’t enough. Stay the fuck out of my way.

I hope you don’t eat with that dirty mouth

[Nava]

terry, if you hadn’t say you don’t belong to any orders I’d think you’re a nun. In case you’re wondering, I’m not talking about the ones with brains, compassion and the respect of every student who’s ever been in one of their classes.

[Lare]

n/m

[TruCelt]

@Ogre

. . .

I suppose you could try to do all this in a stepwise manner by yourself (and single parents do it this way by necessity, God help them. They have my respect and awe.)

. . .

Thanks for this. It brought tears to my eyes to see somebody, just for once, actually say it.

@Ogre

. . .

Also, as for curlcoat, I’m well aware of curly’s M.O. She will get no response of any description from me. May I please ask that the rest of you follow suit?

OK then.

[alice_in_wonderland]

@DoperChic

And just in case you haven’t tried some of these her are a few suggestions for when the little one is sick.

[ul]
[li]Consider having the baby sleep in a carseat, or something similar that will allow him to sit more upright. This will help enormously with the pressure from being so stuffed up, the post-nasal drip, etc. You may want to clear this one with your pediatrician first. Some (like mine) recommend it while others are totally against it.[/li]
[/ul]

When Junior was sick (just a cold) a while back the Health Nurse suggested having him sleep in his swing - it made a huge difference and we were both able to get a bit of rest. But, as DoperChic said - double check with your health care provider.

I’m glad your little guy is feeling better.

[Elysium]

@Ogre

Jesus. Yeah, I hope so too. Your lips to God’s ears. Please let me know how he’s doing. They tell me that this first two years will be absolute living hell in terms of repetitive infections, but after that, he’ll have a titanium-plated immune system. Please let it be so.

Oh that would be so nice! I was telling Mr. Elysium the other day that it would be so great if this means that once he hits public school he won’t get sick as much as the other kids. We can hope, right?
Thankfully I think as of last night and today he is starting to improve. He didn’t cough nearly as much.

And yes, there is nothing in the world as rough as the middle of the night vomit. It definitely takes two to clean up after and soothe the boy in our house.

If I recall, your ogreling was MIGHTY cute when he was a newborn. You have any more recent pics?

[Dangerosa]

Mine are now eleven and twelve. Those nights and days are distant memories. My daughter was ear infection prone (my son wasn’t).

We did the “sleep in the swing” thing. That helped drainage a lot.

My husband had a work stressful job. My daughter and I would “sleep” at the other end of the house. Weekends were my turn to sleep (I also was working).

We did get tubes. They were the godsend everyone claims. There are other risks to ear infections other than your sleep and his comfort - repeated ear infections can scar the drum and impact hearing. As he gets older, he won’t have a great sense of balance - which can mean delayed walking.

Hang in there. I’m 3 1/2 short years from not getting any sleep because our son has the car. I’m cherishing the sleep I get now.

[Maus_Magill]

@Elysium

@Ogre

Jesus. Yeah, I hope so too. Your lips to God’s ears. Please let me know how he’s doing. They tell me that this first two years will be absolute living hell in terms of repetitive infections, but after that, he’ll have a titanium-plated immune system. Please let it be so.

Oh that would be so nice! I was telling Mr. Elysium the other day that it would be so great if this means that once he hits public school he won’t get sick as much as the other kids. We can hope, right?
Thankfully I think as of last night and today he is starting to improve. He didn’t cough nearly as much.

And yes, there is nothing in the world as rough as the middle of the night vomit. It definitely takes two to clean up after and soothe the boy in our house.

If I recall, your ogreling was MIGHTY cute when he was a newborn. You have any more recent pics?

That’s been our experience with Fang. He had the Daycare Perma-cold throughout his first three years, plus ear infections out the ying-yang… even with the tubes. Now (after the tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy), he has only missed one or two days of school since Kindergarten.

@Dangerosa

Hang in there. I’m 3 1/2 short years from not getting any sleep because our son has the car. I’m cherishing the sleep I get now.

Fang driving - that is one thing I do not want to think about.

[Elysium]

@TruCelt

Thanks for this. It brought tears to my eyes to see somebody, just for once, actually say it.

You have my utmost respect and awe. I think it was day 7 when I looked at my husband and expressed how amazed I was that single parents can do all of this themselves. I would never have understood before. Single parents are like super-humans, I think.

[Lissla_Lissar]

Yes. The words that scare me most are Single parent with kids and a new baby. I cannot imagine it. I am also in awe that anyone can ever do this alone. There’s a woman at my former church whose husband was killed when she was pregnant with their forth. It makes my brain and nerves hurt to think about what that must have been like for her.

Ogre, I’m glad he’s better. We had a bad couple of weeks when our oldest got a fever and cold, coughed until he thrwe up in the night, and because he’s diabetic we had to wake up every couple of hours to check his blood sugar and give him injections or phone the diabetes nurse or check for ketones in his urine, because diabetes means when you get sick your blood sugar skyrockets. So he was sick, felt worse because of the high blood sugars, and needed blood taken or injections or force-feeding juice all the time.

It was not fun.

[curlcoat]

@Norse

Bah. I’ve been hung over after drinking too late, I’ve been woken up in the night not falling asleep for at least ten minutes :eek: , I’ve tried those things. They were a breeze compared to an infant with chronic baby colic. They were a walk in the park compared to being woken up at 4 AM by the child having vomited all over himself, the bed and the floor and cries inconsolably, because of the sickness and the shame, and you don’t know where to start cleaning vomit, because it’s all over the place. They were downright fun compared to seeing your child shaking uncontrollably, only the whites in the eyes showing, and you can’t make any contact at all because of fever cramps. That’s downright terrifying.

I’ve been there, I’ve done that, I’ve got the T-shirt to prove it. I’m happy I did, but I’m not doing it again for a million Euros, and those of my colleagues who have small children are cut all the slack they need, and I sympathize thoroughly with them.

Douchebag.

:rolleyes: So, because you have been hungover or missed a night of sleep, you assume that you know that having a sick child must be worse than anything else that can happen to a person? This is one the things that I will never understand about far too many parents; the feeling that any bad thing that happens to them/their kids must be oh so much worse than any bad thing that happens to a non-parent.

As for watching co-workers getting cut slack because they have children, been there, done that, have all the shirts. And quite possibly it contributed to my no longer being able to work, since the old body can only take so many double and triple workloads.

Douchebag.

[Guinastasia]

Good god, you’re a twat.

Ogre – I’m not a parent, but I just wanted to say, good wishes and a get well soon to poor little Ogreling. (Didn’t ANY of your coworkers even say, “Oh god, that poor little thing!” That was my first reaction)

[don_t_ask]

@Dangerosa

We did get tubes. They were the godsend everyone claims. There are other risks to ear infections other than your sleep and his comfort - repeated ear infections can scar the drum and impact hearing. As he gets older, he won’t have a great sense of balance - which can mean delayed walking.

This was my understanding when my son had them. It wasn’t a question of whether we thought it was a good idea - after X infections it was a case of them being essential for his future health. All they do is allow any future infection to drain outwards because the Eustachian tube is incapable of draining inward. So future infections, if any, are more “normal.”

[elucidator]

…“Oh god, that poor little thing!” That was my first reaction)

Well, sure, but really, fuck 'em. Snot-sleeved, grubby, scabby-kneed Visigoths. Entropy on meth, they embody chaos and disorder. Besides, didn’t Jesus say “Suffer the little children”? Well, OK, then, let 'em suffer.

[TravisFromOR]

@curlcoat

:rolleyes: So, because you have been hungover or missed a night of sleep, you assume that you know that having a sick child must be worse than anything else that can happen to a person? This is one the things that I will never understand about far too many parents; the feeling that any bad thing that happens to them/their kids must be oh so much worse than any bad thing that happens to a non-parent.

As for watching co-workers getting cut slack because they have children, been there, done that, have all the shirts. And quite possibly it contributed to my no longer being able to work, since the old body can only take so many double and triple workloads.

Douchebag.

Where did the OP ever say he wanted to be cut slack? He merely had a rant about all the people that couldn’t hold back telling him just how bad their life was and how it was exactly like having a sick baby at home.

Douchebag extraordinare…

[norinew]

Ogre, I’m grateful to God every single day that, while my oldest suffered chronic ear infections, my next two never did (my middle daughter had a total of one ear infection; I’m not sure mudgirl has ever had one!)

But I really do feel for you. That no-sleep shit is tough. And, like Dung Beetle (often when she posts, I’m just certain we were separated at birth!), nothing turns me into a raving, over-the-top, homicidal bitch faster than several consecutive nights of not enough sleep!

I sincerely hope, for everyone’s sake that Ogreling is now on the road to recovery.

And, yay for dads like you, who will get up in the middle of the night to help with this stuff; dads who understand how much better it is to have two sets of hands instead of just one! (and I’m totally with you on that single parent thing; man! I ‘single parent’ quite a bit, since hubby works out of town, but my kids are past that phase where you really need someone ‘running interference’, you know?)
I’ve known too many fathers who would be, like, “Well, there’s no reason we should both be exhausted!” :rolleyes::mad:
ETA: Rachelellogram, that last remark was truly not aimed at you. You admit you are not a parent, so you posted something that, on the surface, sounds quite reasonable, and I understand why you thought that. The comment was aimed at the kinds of people who are parents, but think it’s perfectly OK to just tune everything out because they need their beauty sleep!

[curlcoat]

@TravisFromOR

Where did the OP ever say he wanted to be cut slack? He merely had a rant about all the people that couldn’t hold back telling him just how bad their life was and how it was exactly like having a sick baby at home.

Douchebag extraordinare…

Uh, what do you call someone who can’t keep up on a conversation? What you quoted was my response to 2square4u who cuts his coworkers slack simply because they have small children.

Douchebag extraordinare doesn’t seem to cover it…

[Ogre]

Well, after a weekend of family bliss in which the Ogreling appeared to be pretty much back to normal, it appears we’re driving straight into Shitsville once again. He got us up 5 or 6 times last night, screaming in pain, and couldn’t sleep unless he was draped over mommy. Doctor’s visit today to check the ears, with a probable referral to an ENT, I imagine. At this point, yeah, let’s do it and get some relief for this poor kid.

@Smeghead

When my stepson was born, his lung collapsed within hours. It turned out that he had a congenital heart defect that could only be corrected with a type of open-heart surgery that had only been developed within the previous decade. In the NICU, he was placed next to another infant boy with the exact same problem. The other boy died after the surgery. He lived. So even though I wasn’t there at the time, my wife has told me enough about that experience that I can say yeah, I know.

Good God. :eek:

@DoperChic

Ogre is your baby kept at home with your wife during the day or is he in daycare? My daughter was in a fantastic daycare for the first year or so of her life. The workers were wonderful and the other kids were great with her, but my daughter was constantly sick! She had 4 ear infections in the span of about 5 months or so.

Same here. My wife works as well, and we need two incomes, so the Ogreling is at day care. We really like them, but yeah, apparently it’s a pesthole.

@DoperChic

And just in case you haven’t tried some of these her are a few suggestions for when the little one is sick.

* Humidifier in his bedroom
* Prop up his head. I put a rolled up towel under the mattress.
* Consider having the baby sleep in a carseat, or something similar that will allow him to sit more upright. This will help enormously with the pressure from being so stuffed up, the post-nasal drip, etc. You may want to clear this one with your pediatrician first. Some (like mine) recommend it while others are totally against it.
* Saline drops to clean out the nose. I didn't use them much but my pediatrician swears by them.

Good luck. I hope the little guy is back to his old self soon!

Many thanks. We are definitely using all of the methods you posted, except for the carseat. He’s graduated to an upright carseat, now. He’s a long, tall kid, and literally won’t fit into the pumpkin seat anymore. The rolled-up towel under the mattress seems to be helping, but he keeps ending up sort of rolling to the bottom eventually.

@Elysium

If I recall, your ogreling was MIGHTY cute when he was a newborn. You have any more recent pics?

I do indeed. I’ll start a new thread in MPSIMS and link it here. I wanna keep him out of the Pit.

@Guinastasia

Ogre – I’m not a parent, but I just wanted to say, good wishes and a get well soon to poor little Ogreling. (Didn’t ANY of your coworkers even say, “Oh god, that poor little thing!” That was my first reaction)

Yeah, most people did. You have to understand my state of mind when I wrote the OP, though. I was not in a charitable mood, and was far more likely to take umbrage than grant leeway, if you know what I mean.

[Anne_Neville]

@Dangerosa

There are other risks to ear infections other than your sleep and his comfort - repeated ear infections can scar the drum and impact hearing. As he gets older, he won’t have a great sense of balance - which can mean delayed walking.

I had a lot of ear infections as a kid. I have scars on at least one of my eardrums now. My hearing and balance are not great. I probably should have had tubes, but I didn’t.

[Guinastasia]

@Ogre

Yeah, most people did. You have to understand my state of mind when I wrote the OP, though. I was not in a charitable mood, and was far more likely to take umbrage than grant leeway, if you know what I mean.

Oh, I believe you – if that were my kid, I would’ve torn them ten new assholes. I’m glad to hear that you have more sensitive coworkers.

Poor little Ogreling. I hope he gets well soon!