Vacation?

Jeremiah's dad recently was transferred to Forest Grove, OR (about 40 mi from Portland) and his mom especially was bummed since the 8 hour drive to their home in WA makes this the farthest she's ever lived from her family. So I thought it would be fun to cheer her up with a visit from Callie & Jack & me! While it was really great to see them, it was a crazy trip! For starters, even though my sister dropped me off on the curb at the airport & helped me get all my stuff out, I looked like a complete idiot pushing/pulling 2 large suitcases, 2 car seats, a backpack & a double stroller through the sky-cap line! I took the dvd player for the flight, but since the headphones didn't get put in the backpack, the kids couldn't hear their beloved Blue's Clues or Winnie the Pooh. They were VERY anxious to get off the plane. Me too! We flew in Thursday afternoon so there was nothing eventful to report that day other than the flight and the highly anticipated reunion of grandparents/grandchildren! On Friday I drove us to an amazing outlet mall that I'd looked up before leaving home. It was definitely the best outlet mall I've been too - it had everything! Everything I love anyway - Gap, Osh Kosh, Carter's, & Gymboree! And my first time in a Banana Republic outlet proved to be an expensive one (Jeremiah doesn't read "our" blog!)! We didn't make it into many stores at all because we wanted to get back when Jeremiah's dad was done with work. As it turned out, we should have just shopped longer instead of taking twice the time to get home due to rush hour traffic! Saturday was an exciting day! It started off with a trip to urgent care! Jack hadn't slept well Thursday night & woke up with a croupy cough & not feeling good Friday morning but seemed mostly better during the day. But Friday night he didn't sleep well again & about 6 am he woke up with labored breathing & more of the croupy cough. Since I'd called our pediatrician's office the day before when he had the croupy cough, I knew that since it was combined with the labored breathing he needed to be checked out. Well the only thing open at 6am is the emergency room and since it wasn't really an emergency, I figured we could wait till urgent care opened at 8. We didn't get to urgent care till about 9 and by then Jack was mostly breathing fine & he wasn't coughing much. I questioned whether I should still be taking him but Jeremiah (who wasn't in OR w/us) said we'd rather be safe than sorry so they checked him out anyway & of course said he was fine - just a cold.



I'd sent Jeremiah's dad to go get Jer's mom & Callie since I thought Jack & I would be a while, but we were quick & Jer's dad got lost (they'd only been there about 2 weeks), so Jack & I had to wait to be picked up for over an HOUR! From there we headed to the zoo. Callie was SO excited about it - we'd talked about it for several days. It was drizzling when we got there & my umbrella broke as I was opening it so the first thing I did was head to the gift shop for a new one. I got the less expensive umbrella which was a whopping $16.99 and when I got back outside the drizzle stopped & it never rained again! Callie had a really great time at the zoo & loved seeing the animals & hanging out with Papa & Grandma. Jack on the other hand was miserable almost all day! He just didn't feel good! He perked up a couple times, but mostly it was not enjoyable for him.









On Saturday night he woke up again in the middle of the night with labored breathing & was very unhappy. Jack & I stayed in all day Sunday and after Callie & Jeremiah's parents got back from church, Callie & Jack & I all took a good long nap. On Monday Jack woke up and started throwing up - mostly water & phlegm. He had 3 bites of oatmeal for breakfast & threw them up on our way to the airport. Both kids (Callie was getting a cold by now too) got Benadryl at the airport & slept the first half of the flight home. The second half Jack was very grumpy and threw up some water & Robitussin on the 2 of us. I was SO happy to be off the plane & going home! Jack rounded off the trip with some diarrhea & a little more throw-up.

When we got home my mom brought us dinner because Jeremiah was at class & Jack threw up some more. Since he hadn't eaten anything all day & couldn't hold down water or Pedialyte I called our pediatrician again who said Jack needed to be checked out! Of course this stuff always happens at the wrong time! So Jeremiah came home from class & we headed to the ER. By the time we got home from the ER, just before 1am, Jack had had a breathing treatment, chest X-rays to check for pneumonia, a suppository to combat the puking, and then had been swabbed (pretty much having his brain poked) for RSV, which came back positive. Since he's 16 months & RSV is the very most dangerous for like 12-15 mos & younger, they sent us home with a follow-up visit to our pediatrician the next morning. What an exciting vacation we had! :) No, we really did have a fun time visiting Jeremiah's parents, but it not getting any sleep & having a sick little guy put a small damper on things!