Mommy Instincts

I’m going to take a day off from my story about the Montage condo. Don’t worry, I’ll finish it up tomorrow.

So the cold I thought was finally leaving my house made a last minute u-turn to give me one last smack and to really get baby Gray but good. The Dayquil I had been taking fairly religiously stopped making the aches go away Wednesday and my sweet Grayber started to get snotty-nosed that same day.

We both made hearty attempts to shake it off and tough it out (favorite expressions of my Dad) Thursday, but it just wasn’t working for either of us. Gray was awake most of the night last night, utterly inconsolable. This morning when he woke up he looked like someone had punched him in both eyes:

When I saw his sad pink circles, I quickly made an executive decision and called the doctor to make him an appointment. I have to say, one of the generally undiscussed challenges of motherhood (at least undiscussed so far as I have heard) is the challenge of when to drag the kids to the doctor. The thing is, we tend to get a bad rap for jumping the gun. Everyone knows those moms who are constantly sure something is deathly wrong with their children, and I think this is an easy mentality to fall into. When you are totally and completely responsible for the health and wellbeing of another human being, I think it’s easy to question yourself and worry that something will go horribly wrong. But, of course, we all want to look like we’re handling it just fine and that there’s no panicking involved. God forbid we bring them in to the doctor only to have him say that nothing is wrong and we had overreacted to some little imagined symptom. No one wants the reputation of the Mom who cried pneumonia.

Anyway, I ALWAYS struggle with the timing of bringing my boys in to the doctor, but today, I just decided. I looked at those eyes, and even though they weren’t really bloodshot or all that gooey, there was definitely something wrong. And to add to that, it’s Friday of a holiday weekend. So if I didn’t go in today, we wouldn’t be seen except at urgent care, until next Tuesday. So that sealed it for me and we went.

BOY am I glad we did. The doctor confirmed that Gray does have pink eye, and not only that, but nasty ear infections in both ears. Plus, when he woke up from his afternoon nap, his eyes had gotten so bad they were completely glued together. EW.

So today, on the positive side, I am proud of my motherly instincts. Ooo, and Jason brought me home some new cold medicine that is finally making me feel like a human again. Yay for Aleve Cold and Sinus!