she's got beautiful eyes, but the ears aren't good...

If you've known our family for awhile, you likely know that we've struggled with properly functioning ears in both Lauren and Sarah. Prone to one ear infection after the other...they both had "tubes" placed a little more than 4 years ago (Sarah was 4 months old and had her first infection at 2 weeks old).

Well, we thought we escaped ear issues with Julia...thinking lungs would be her biggest problem (she spent a week in the hospital at the first of the year with RSV and pneumonia to catch some of you up). She's had two ear infections to date (which is fantastic in our book).

Lately, she's been talking a lot, but no real words were coming out...in fact, her speech was going backwards. I also suspected another ear infection. So...we decided to skip past the pediatrician and go straight to our trusty ear doctor.

In this part of the story, take a moment to shove your fingers as far into your ears as you can, or if you're like my mom, grab your earplugs and plug 'em in. You can still read, but I take it you're not hearing very well. Yup, you guessed it...that's how Julia is hearing the world around her...and has been for awhile. Somehow, it's escaped her regular doctor that fluid has been piling up and now is mimicking the look of her ear drum...thus making hearing a challenge.

It seems fixable...which is good, of course. But it's a little sad to know she can't hear us all that well...not to mention that apparently she just likes the look of the Wiggles and not how they sing (which is my favorite part).

So, we'll start with an antibiotic (heavy duty) to try to clear it out of there and also heal the infection she does have now too. After that, we'll test the hearing again...but we're likely looking at tubes again, which I'm all for. Whatever it takes to get the gunk out so she can hear my off-key rendition of You are My Sunshine again!

Thanks to you all for reading through a cathartic blog post! (you can take your fingers out of your ears now).