It might be an ear infection . . .

As mentioned previously Sunday is slated as our day to go shopping and to do family type activities if the weather is nice such as going to the zoo or just walking out side with the baby. Well the day started out like any other Sunday, we got up, fed the piggy, and planned our day out. The piggy needed more water so we decided to hit Sam's Club and then hit the book store as there were a few books Piggy's Mom and I wanted to pick up. (Check my cyber wolf den for a book review of the book I picked up.)

All was going well, I even managed to get some homework done, that was until Piggy's Mom called the mother-in-law. There I am minding my own business working on homework in my own little world until those fateful words manage to penetrate my concentration "You know it might be an ear infection." -PERK- Suddenly I'm all ears, all concentration and any hope of getting any more homework done goes right out the window. My ears turn into highly tuned eaves dropping devices as I to discover and find out if I heard what I thought I heard, while praying I didn't.

I wait patently for Piggy's Mom to get off the phone all the while thinking CRAP, both Piggy's Mom and I had had bad ear infections as children, so the Piggy stood a good chance of also getting them. At this point for some reason the phrases "it starts" from Lion King DVD and the Monty Python announcement "and now for something completely different", keep running through my mind. Now if any of you have checked out our other blogs you'll know that I'm active duty military which typically means one thing TriCare. Well if any of you have used TriCare , you'll know that it isn't the best in the world at getting appointments. So my pucker factor starts growing by the minute. Finally Piggy's Mom gets on the phone and I'm all ears.

"Um what could be an ear infection, honey?"
"We'll the Piggy had been awful fussy lately and is tugging at her right ear, I mention this to mom and she said it would be an ear infection."
"O Really..."CRAP!!!!!!!!

To make a long short, we manage to wake up and call the appointment line early enough to get an appointment. Cool problem solved right.. Wrong it was at this moment that the weather decided to change for the worse, the wind picked up and the rain started poring down like an out door shower. Dread fills me as I think about the drive ahead of us, as the Military hospital is 30 minutes way and we have to get through downtown traffic in the middle of rush hour to get there. We finally arrive at the hospital and I suggest reading the wife's blog to learn the details about our issues there, but in summary it turns out the Piggy didn't have an ear infection though she did have all the classic signs for one, increased irritability, slight fever, and tugging at her ear as if it hurts, so we did the right thing by bringing her in as she's under 2 years old and it has been going on for a few days and not going away. But since there wasn't any fluid behind the ear it wasn't an ear infection. As it turns out all these same symptoms are also classic signs of one other thing: teething.............

While this is a load off my mind at the same time I keep thinking to my self: "Where is that laughing coming from?"

Next time (baring any other urgency's) more details about the Piggy's birth or as I like to refer to it "How to set up for both your mom and dad a 7 week long scare of their lives and a series of heart attacks with very little effort." :)

Ish

Hi

These are the "Piggy Files", the continuing new adventures into parenthood by me and the wife.

Okay, for the first post the wife and I felt it we needed to explain ourselves a little, namely to help prevent the eventual outrage by some over calling our little one the piggy, actually the true nick name is piggybutt, hence the name of the blog the "Piggy Files".

The Piggy was born at only 28.5 weeks and spend the first 7 weeks of her little life in the NICU. She was born weighing only 2 lbs. 3 oz. As time passed she slowly but surely gained in size and weight. Because she was so small the wife starting calling her piggybutt in hopes she would embrace the name and gain weight. At first she could only be fed via I.V. fluids and lipids, soon she moved to tube feedings with slowly increasing amounts. Around the 5th week she was finally mature enough to try bottle feeding, which she took like a thirsty German at Oktoberfest takes a beer. The wife, myself and the nurses were rather excited by this and jokingly called her a pig as she was fufilling her mom's hopes. I resisting at first but gave in after a visit from the mother-in-law.

The wife's mother came to visit and instantly fell in love with the little one and the nickname, so much so that upon returning home, she promptly bought and sent the wife and I a 27" stuffed pig, which we subsequently named Breakfast. Needless to say like the Borg resistance was futile and I quickly surrendered any hope of combating this nickname and instead learned to embraced it.

Almost 6 months later the wife and I are finally getting into the swing of things and had enough free time that we could create this blog to share our experiances as first time parents.

Well thats all for now, tomorow is family day so hopefully we'll have an intresting story, if not we'll continue filling in the background and history of the Piggy.


Ish.