Ella's first real "bug"

Ella is sick.

She's not extra fussy or cranky, not running a real high temp. She's eating, she's sleeping, she's (mostly) cheerful and alert.

But she's sick.

A few days after her four month check-up, her right eye started watering a lot. I didn't think too much of it at first. It kept watering, so I watched it a little more closely. Just a few days ago, I began to notice some of the yellowish goo. So I called and talked to the nurse, and they said to bring her in.

When we went in, they asked me a lot of questions: is she rubbing her ears? No. Running a fever? No. Extra fussy? Not at all. Is she eating well? Plenty. Sleeping well? Better than ever.

Well, the PA comes in and starts looking her over. She asks some similar questions. Then she explains that anytime there appears to be any sort of problem or infection in the eye, they always check the ears and the throat for signs of infection. Ella did NOT want them to look in her ears, but eventually, with the nurse holding her down, the PA was able to see in her ears. Some wax build-up, she said, but no signs of infection. Then she looked at her throat, and her eyes got really big. "Wow," she said, and told me that Ella's throat looked terrible. She looked at me and said, "You told me she's still eating?" and then immediately asked the nurse to take her temp. Their thermometer broke and they never got an accurate temp, but the PA said, "it doesn't matter. I'm going to treat her anyway." Apparently, Ella has a throat infection--the tell-tale redness with white patches. The PA explained that it was probably the same bacteria that was affecting her eye as well. So, my little 4 1/2 month old girlie is on her first batch of Amoxicillin. :( So sad!

The PA told me to watch Ella closely in the future, since she seems to be one of those babies who doesn't make a big fuss about being sick. I mean, I never, ever would have known. In a way, I guess it's ok--it's not like I want a super-cranky baby right now--but it scared me a little that she could have something that bad without me even knowing about it!!

Not much else to tell, really, except that she's interacting a lot and she's cuter than ever! I'll try to post some pictures later this week.