Tales from the Trip

My New Year hasn't started off so smooth. We were all perfectly healthy before we boarded the plane. The day after we got there, Kolby started coughing. Then Sage, finally I succumbed to the cold. We weren't miserable, just a cold. Kolby had a bit of a fever with it, but with Tylenol, it was no big deal. A runny nose, low grade fever, and a cough. The fever cleared up, we drove to our second place to stay, my sisters.

The cough stuck around, the fever and runny nose cleared up. After a week, we transferred to our third place to stay, my brothers.

Kolby had started to get a little worse but wasn't terrible. Then he got terrible. He was so clingy and fussy. He only wanted to be held by me. He was warm, but was it because I was holding him all the time or did he have a fever. I didn't check. A mistake that I hopefully won't make again. For two nights, I was up with him a lot, like a couple hour chunks at a time. I was exhausted. Finally, my mom says she thinks I should take him to the ER (it was a Sunday). I hemmed and hawed and called my mother in law who works as a pediatric triage nurse. She said take him in. I hemmed and hawed. We called my brothers neighbor who used to be an EMT. He said take him in. I decided to take him in.

He was diagnosed with a bronchial virus, probably RSV, but the nurse didn't realize it was a nose swab test and kept waiting for the blood test to come back and a double ear infection. We were sent home with a nebulizer for albueteral treatments every 4 hours around the clock and amoxicillin. I was already tired. I got more worn down, but a little more sleep. The amoxicillin gave him diarrhea but not enough to be of concern.

My mom decided we should come and stay in a hotel with her so she could help me with the night time treatments. During the two hour drive, Sage wasn't looking so hot. But he wanted milk and food and treats so I of course, gave him everything he asked for. We stopped to nurse Kolby and my mom bought Sage a sucker. I put a bib on him because he is such a drooler and I didn't want chocolate, sticky, drool on his clothes. Then he barfed. Everything. I don't handly puke. My mom cleaned it up. All of it. She is a great mom.

Kolby slept through the 11 pm and would usually wake up to nurse after the 3 am time. Sage slept through all the treatments. The first one, he woke up and I explained that I had to give Kolby his treatment and did he want to help. He sat with me on the bed, with his hand on my lap while I held the nozzle to Kolby's face. The treatment took about 10 - 12 minutes and about half way through, he got up, walked to his bed and half laid, half stood there. Then he announced "Me poopy."

The next morning, we made our way back to my in laws, our fourth and final destination before glorious home. Sage threw up some toast and water breakfast at the hotel in the breakfast room, on a paper plate and the floor. I don't think it totally counted as throwing up because he was coughing pretty hard and then it came up and it wasn't everything he ate, just a little bit.

The drive part went great. We stopped at Culvers to nurse Kolby, give him a treatment and feed ourselves. Sage was on a bread and water diet. I sat down to start nursing Kolby and felt a wet spot. He had a blow out. At that point, I should have thought, of course, we are just one disaster after another this trip.

The rest of the trip was smooth driving.

The next exciting thing that happened was going to church with my in-laws. I wasn't going to risk putting the boys in a nursery the day before we are supposed to fly out, so I kept them with me. They did great, that isn't the good part. During the closing song, the fire alarm went off. The song leaders kept singing, no one seemed to notice. I immediatly gathered our coats and started putting them on and was explaining to Sage what was going on and what we are doing. Then everyone started moving and I was in the way. It isn't a small task putting coats on two wiggly boys and trying to do it quickly and calmly. There wasn't a fire, but a flood. A pipe froze from the sprinkler system and flooded the front of the worship space.

I think I will talk to Sage about what he should do if he hears a fire alarm at our house. We should all have a plan.