The nondiagnosis

Question -- What do you get when you combine a baby with ear infection symptoms and a long wait at the local clinic?
Answer -- A tired baby who was cleared of anything beyond a case of the sniffles and parents who were relieved at the diagnosis (was there one if no illness was detected?) but chapped about having to wait an abnormally long time before the casual doctor came sauntering in, oblivious to our obvious frustration.
Today we made our second unplanned trip to the clinic for Elise (the first was for Gunk Eye when she was a week old).
Since the middle of last week she's been congested, on Friday and Saturday her breathing sounded like Keith Richards' raspy laugh and today she was unusually irritable. (For those wondering, the symptoms existed well before her Saturday swim in WARM water.)
Thinking there was a remote possibility of an ear infection, we went to the clinic this afternoon. After spending more time than necessary waiting for the "expert," the tardy doc came in, listened to her chest, waved a light on her eyes and found some fluid in her ears, but no infection. Elise just has some crud.
"About all you can do is give her some Tylenol and some extra tender, loving care," the doc said annoyingly.
The good news is that by this evening, she seemed to be getting a little better. That is to say we no longer are able to pull nasty gunk from her nose using the Booger Bulb. (Progress is measured in many ways.)
Other good news: The clinic visit gave us a chance to put that baby on the scale and get an updated weight. At nearly 4 months, she weighs 14 pounds 9 ounces.