10:00 - 11:00

11:30 - 1:30

2:00 - 4:00

4:15 - 5:30

That's it. That's the sleep I got last night.

Not coincidentally, it's also pretty much the same amount of sleep Matt got last night.

Also not coincidentally, it's close to the amount of sleep Penny got last night, except she also had a nap from 8 to 9, and one this morning from 5:45 to 6:30. Apparently, it wasn't the Triaminic.

Tylenol did not help. (Well, sort of. The two-hour naps were probably helped along by the Tylenol.)

Sleeping in the carseat did not help.

Leaving the light on did not help.

And she would not stop crying until we put a bottle in her mouth, though at the 4:00 wake-up I discovered that she would just as happily fall back asleep on a few ounces of plain water as on formula.

It was like she was in psychic connection with the 5-day-old next door.

And as soon as the sun was up, she was back to being normal and happy and cute. If somewhat tired. But awake! Definitely awake.

This cannot be right. There must be something that is making her wake up this frequently. I'm calling the doctor's office as soon as they open.

And that's why you get this lame-ass journal entry today.

Update #1: 9:15am - Coffee is my friend. Coffee loves me like no one else loves me. I must remember to do something nice for Coffee's birthday.

Update #2: 10:30pm - It turns out that Penny has an ear infection. Just one, in her left ear.

So there's a reason for her weird sleeping and fussiness. And her clingy behavior lately, too, maybe.

And the requiring a bottle to calm down makes more sense, too. Like chewing or sucking on something on an airplane to get your ears to pop, the same motions can help to clear ears of excess fluid, which relieves pressure and pain. (I had frequent ear infections, myself, until I was six or so. Despite tubes in my ears. So I know how very much they hurt. My poor baby...)

I'm also recalling her... not pulling on her ear, but kind of flicking it with her fingers, and wondering if she's finally going to start showing symptoms for ear infections so we can catch them before they get really bad - or if the only reason this one has symptoms is because it's only in one ear, so she feels lopsided.

In any case, the doctor gave us a 10-day run of antibiotics, and another prescription for something else that we're supposed to give her for a whole month, to help try to keep the damned infections away so her poor ears can completely heal. If she gets another infection during that month, or if she gets another one too soon after that's done, the doc will be recommending tubes.

So I'm a little worried about that. And a little worried that one or the other of the drugs will have unpleasant side-effects, or taste so nasty that giving them to her will be a battle.

But mostly I'm actually kind of relieved.

Knowing that there's a solid reason for the crying will help me have more patience with it. It means that I'm not even going to bother trying to calm her down without a bottle for the next few nights, until the antibiotic has a chance to do its job. We'll just keep a full bottle of water in her room for nighttime soothing.

And I'll be Coffee's very best friend for a while.

--Liz