Edward does not have an ear infection, but does have a virus called Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease. Clicking on the link will bring you to a CDC information sheet about the disease. It's apparently very common in babies and young children, especially in the summer months. So far he only has a few spots on his hands and feet and nothing in his mouth. It's not serious unless he gets sores in his mouth that make him not want to eat. That plus the diarrhea associated with the virus (which he's had this weekend, but we didn't connect to the other symptoms) can lead to dehydration. So we'll just have to be sure he has plenty of wet diapers and lots of his usual slobbering. He has his six-month check-up on Wednesday afternoon so they'll be able to follow up then to be sure he's on the road to recovery.

They didn't say why this would interrupt sleep, so the pattern of the last few nights where he's waking up and rejecting being put back in his crib after eating may be unrelated. We'll see. We had him sleep in his carseat last night and he did pretty well, sleeping from about 7 p.m. to 2 a.m. After I fed him he was wide awake and playing with his feet. This was not so cute at 2 a.m. We brought him to bed with us (which is very unusual for us--we're not subscribers to the "family bed" theory) and he eventually fell asleep until about 5:30 a.m. Needless to say, his parents are longing for his old habit of sleeping through from 7:30 p.m. to 6 a.m.!