A Dad’s Blog

Camden’s screaming fits that began on Sunday and continued on through last night were warranted.  Out little guy officially has his 11th ear infection, for which he was prescribed some antibiotics.

The ear, nose and throat specialist saw him yesterday and she opted to keep his surgery appointment for Thursday morning.  I feel badly that he’s got another ear infection that we can’t do much about, but at least a solution is only a few days away.

I just want these tubes to stay in a while and really help him out.  I don’t like the little man being in pain, being uncomfortable, or having trouble hearing us and saying new words.

To say that last night was trying would be a tremendous understatement.

One of these things has happened:

1. Cam has gotten water in his ear (he did go to the beach on Saturday)
2. Cam developed another ear infection in his right ear (that would be #11)
3. Camden morphed overnight into a raging velociraptor, whining, hissing and screaming throughout the night while viciously wishing to attack and kill our cats.

In 17 months time we’ve counted ten ear infections.  TEN. That’s insane and makes me feel so badly for him when I see him tugging at his ear in obvious discomfort.

That’s why it’s no surprise the Ear Nose Throat Specialist recommended tubes last week.  That’s also why he’ll be going in on Thursday morning for those tubes to be put in (more on that later).

At 5AM amidst the fourth time he woke screaming and clawing, we decided to let him fuss it out in the crib.  No amount of consoling him was helping and he had gotten only 3 hours of actual sleep to that point.  He had already been given some Tylenol, ear drops, and lots and lots of hugs.

There was nothing left to try and all he wanted to do was play with his trains.

We laid him back down in the crib and literally covered our heads with pillows.  I keep telling myself this is not an indicator that I’m a bad parent. Please reassure me of that.  But he did fall back asleep.

He normally gets up around 6AM.  At some point the alarm clock was given a holiday because I woke up startled as all hell at 7:07AM.

Problem: I leave for work at 7:00AM.

So… it hasn’t been the best start to the week.  Camden may end up at the pediatrician’s office before day’s end.  My wife called to tell me that he was acting fine when he finally did get up.  Hopefully that’s the case throughout the day.

At 4AM, Camden began screaming.  We’re not sure if he’s doing this most times because of a night terror, teething, or the problems that he’s had with his ear infections.   But super early this morning, he wanted no part of being back in his crib.

The only way for us to try to catch more sleep was to bring him in the bed with us, surrounding him so he couldn’t roll off the sides or miss stepping on us on his way down.  While I’m a heavy sleeper, the little man was kicking like an Olympic swimmer, and by 5:30AM, we were up and the day had begun.

From 4:00 until 5:30, I’m sure he didn’t sleep much.  It was constant tossing, turning and whining — all of which lead me to think that he’s not feeling stellar.  Either way, it was morning.  Time to play.

After a run to get a coffee (three hours of sleep doesn’t do much good for me), I came home and made some breakfast.  After that, it was play room time which again involved lots of playing with Thomas the Train as well as some random toys.

From about 7AM through 10AM, he just kept getting more and more tired… Here are some photos I grabbed of him progressing to fully awake, to damn near ready to pass out.  There was some dancing inbetween, and I’ve got a video of that.  Provided his nap lasts long enough, I’ll post that up soon as well.

Earlier this month my wife and I took Camden to the Mystic Aquarium in Mystic, CT.  Taking Camden to this particular aquarium is nothing knew.  We’ve been there a bunch of times it seems.

What was new though is that Cam is now at the point now where he understands more of what he’s looking at through the thick glass.  I credit Finding Nemo for this.

One of the biggest hits with Cam was the the beluga whale tank.  I think that there were three whales in the tank that day, but there was one that kept swimming under where we stood.  I’ve never seen him so jazzed up and baffled by the fact that this ginormous thing could not only swim in the same path over and over again - but underneath the concrete we were standing on.

It really was great to see him laughing and screaming at them on a warm summer day though.

Another exhibit that he liked (for the most part anyways) was the Birds of the Outback exhibit.  As their site explains:

Visitors to Birds of the Outback venture into a 1,200 square foot enclosed aviary which features hundreds of free-flying cockatiels, parakeets, and rosellas. All these colorful birds are native to Australia. Admission is only $2 and includes a seed stick.

Aquarium guests even get the chance to personally feed these beautiful creatures, all the while interacting and learning about the Aussie birds’ native habitats and behaviors.

Cam loved the birds from about 5 feet away.  Anything closer than that, like the ones who fly right at you and narrowly miss impaling their peaks into your forehead, scared the bejesus out of him.

Was a great trip though.  We bought him a stuffed beluga for all the stress the birds put him through.

Following are some pics from that trip a  few weekends back…

More photos can be found on the Mystic Aquarium Flickr Photo Set.

It has been forever since I’ve posted on this blog, so I’ll make it a point to get back in and post updates often.  To get us started, here’s a short video of Camden playing with his Thomas the Tank Engine train set that seems to grow in size each week.  I was doing dishes and saw him super content, so I quickly grabbed the camera and shot this…