2 weeks

* i started this post last week and am just now finishing it for obvious reasons* 

Parker had his two week appointment on Friday. The good news is he is gaining weight- he is up to 8lb 7oz (almost 5 ounces in a week). 

The bad news- he has bilateral ear infections:( Ainsley has had a cold since around when he was born and he must've gotten some germs:( he is on antibiotics and it is breaking my heart that he is. 

What led Dr Nelson to look in his ears was me telling him how unhappy Parker is a lot of the time. He cries- a lot. Like colic kind of crying. He can not tolerate being flat. He cries if he is not being held, and most the time even when he is being held. And he put on one of his best shows at the doctors office so he definitely believed me. 

I told him I really feel like it's his belly that is hurting him. He said he wanted to treat his ears first and see if that made him any better. If not, we would think about a milk allergy versus reflux. 

After days and nights of screaming crying (not like just fussy, like wailing for hours on end)- we decided we were taking him back in to the doctor. this was decided at like 3 am after he had screamed bloody murder for an hour after nursing. 

So monday morning we took him back to the doctor, where he said his left ear looked better but his right ear looked worse, almost to the point of rupturing. So we had to change antibiotics since the current one was not helping his right ear. He also said he wanted to start him on baby Zantac because his symptoms sounded like silent reflux. He was up to 8 pounds 9 ounces, so he wasn't that worried about him. I, of course, just cried in the doctors office while Philip explained all the symptoms he was having as Parker just screamed and screamed. It's really hard to listen to your newborn just scream from pain and not be able to do anything. add no sleep to that and it's just not pretty. 

And so that day my mom and anna jo came up to watch the kids so that philip and I could sleep. we were beyond exhausted and my mental state was not great:) 

Philip had to work clinic today, so my mom came up and stayed last night with us so we could get some sleep, especially philip. and hallalujah Parker slept great last night and actually went back to sleep after nursing! (he ate at 9, slept until 2, then again until 6!). so all 3 of us ended up getting some sleep. THANK YOU MOM. 

Today, Parker has let us lay him down for longer periods of times. He has been awake and not screaming. and he has tolerated being flat for small periods of time. We are encouraged and are so thankful for all of you that have been praying for us. We know no sleep is part of having a newborn. We know babies are fussy. We can handle those things, as long as we don't have to listen to him cry out all day. all night. in pain. and today was a much better day. hoping he is on the road to getting to be happy and comfortable. We go back to the doctor Friday so will update more then :)