it starts

What? you ask. Ear infections. Ever since I've known Russ (maybe just since we were married, or engaged or something) I have been prepared for my children to have ear infections like murder. Russ had them so often he had to have tubes put in his ear (which helped). He didn't have them as a baby, just as a toddler, and a young child (probably until he was four or five).

It isn't official (because Vincente hasn't been to the pediatrician yet) but I'm pretty sure he has an ear infection. He just got over a pretty nasty cold about a week ago, and just about when his cold cleared up is when he started getting moody - clingy, crying all the time, waking up in the night crying, lost his appetite. And then a few days ago I noticed some nasty ear goo coming out of his right ear. He's always had a normal amount (and color) of ear wax, so it being a crusty brown color and gooping up like it was, and combined with the end of a cold (during which he produced a lot of really gross boogers) and the other symptoms, I decided it is probably an ear infection.

I will take him to the pediatrician as soon as I can get an appointment, but the lastest research from the AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics) says not to do anything for (most) ear infections except give pain-relievers. No more super-bug breeding antibiotics (except in the case of a REALLY bad, REALLY dangerous ear infection) for every single ear infection. If this is indeed an ear infection, it's pretty much your run-of-the-mill ear infection, and the AAP says those are best left to the body to take care of (with the help of pain-relievers so your baby isn't miserable while his little body takes care of it).

So wish me luck to dealing with Vincente's first (definitely not his last, I'm sure) ear infection.