Bye-Bye Binky, Hello Ear Infection

Yes, we finally did it. Drew no longer has a binky. I had no part in the effort of taking it away. On Dec 18, Drew lost his last binky and I there was no way I was going to break down and buy another one, just to fuel a habit that is so hard to break. I was wanting to get him off the binky during my school break, and now it was the perfect time. The first 3 nights were terrible and I was tempted to give in and buy another one just so I could get some sleep. In fact, I was really tired of sleeping on his floor (which by the way happened to be the first time ever with Drew). It was getting better and he finally stopped asking for it. Sleep was much better and I thought we were out of the woods on that one. A few days ago Jeff found the binky behind the piano and we quickly hid it out of sight.

Unfortunately, he started waking up at night, up to 4 times a night. I think on Thursday night I got about 4 hours sleep. He just wouldn't go to sleep, and I think I slept on his floor for about 3 hours, after he threw up all over myself and the floor. Friday morning, Drew woke up at 7:30 am, and I handed him off to Jeff so I could go back to sleep. When I woke up 2 hours later, Drew mentioned his ear hurt. This was the first time he complained about it, and that definitely would explain the sleepless nights for both of us. His ear had some secretions and it him when I took some of it out of his ear canal. I took him into the Dr. before we left for Vancouver for the weekend. The Dr. said he was tough and he definitely had an infection. He also said it's been infected for a while and there was "debris" (not sure exactly what kind of debris can enter an ear canal) which made it hard for him to see clearly through the ear. So because it was hard to see to the tympanic membrane, and it was clearly an infection, it must have been really bad. We got him antibiotics and ear drops to help with the infection.

Last night he slept soundly from 10pm to 6:30am. He woke up earlier than I wanted, but it was so nice to get a good nights rest without waking multiple times throughout the night.