Doctor or no doctor?

Hi FTM here, and I’m having trouble deciding if I should take my 1 year old to the doctors...

He has had a fever since Monday. A cough started yesterday. Although I will mention, the cough isn’t constant. Just random. So he isn’t coughing so much that his throat would hurt because of it.

The highest his fever has gotten is 102.4. He is very very restless at night. Just moves around and cries. I’ve been switching with Tylenol and Motrin. When he coughs or sneezes, he cries out of pain. That’s kind of what worries me. I’m not sure if that could be strep (but he still drinks, and kinda eats, just not a lot)...or an ear infection? You can just tell the poor guy doesn’t feel good.

The only reason I am hesitant to bring him in, is twice before I was so sure he had an ear infection, and I brought him in, paid the 75 dollar copay, and NOTHING. He had had a fever for a week, and they said it was just viral and to let it pass. So I’m just trying to avoid an hour wait at the doctors if I’m just being an over worried mom.

What would you do?