We’ve been a little quiet here on the blog front for the last few days. Do you want to know why? We’ve been spending most of our time cleaning up puke.
Let me explain.
On Friday we woke up and left the house by 6:30am to start our trip to St. Louis to see some of Benjamin’s extended family. This was our first trip with Owen that we needed to take 2 flights, one that conflicted with naptime. I was anxious. We decided to schedule the flights so we left early in the morning, had a break for lunch, and arrived in St. Louis before bedtime so as not to mess up a night’s sleep. When we arrived at the gate for our first flight we were told it was booked solid, so there were no empty seats. Boo. That’s pretty much what we expected, flying on the Friday of a long, holiday weekend. But still, it was not the news we were hoping for. Then, after climbing into the plane, juggling bags and coats and toys and coffees (hindsight: bad idea!!!), we were told that the plane wasn’t going to take off right away.
Ahem. We sat on the runway for nearly 45 minutes before even going anywhere. Brutal. Thankfully, Owen was in a fantastic mood and was allowing me to distract him from the fact that we were sitting still with snacks, book reading, more snacks, song singing, more snacks and lots of looking out the window. Oh, and watching all of the airplanes (Hehpay! Hehpay!). Finally we were up in the air and, surprisingly, the 2 1/2 hour flight went by relatively quickly. Or maybe that’s just the blurry memory of my post-trip brain speaking. Either way, we made it to Chicago.
Once in Chicago we found some lunch and headed straight for the Admirals Club to pass the time until our next flight. Owen was stuffed with snacks and didn’t want anything to do with lunch, but was pretty happy about playing in the kids’ area with blocks. We made it to our next flight and started to plant the seed that it was naptime (“Ok, Owen, on the next flight you get to hold Lovey and you and Mommy will snuggle and it will be naptime.” “You can close your eyes on the airplane and take a little snooze, mmkay?”). No extra seats on this flight either, so I attempted to cuddle the twisting, squirming, flailing, fussing beast and lure him into sleep. After a wild period of trying to escape out the airplane window, I gave Owen his lovey and slowly he relaxed into sleep. Success! A plane nap!
Once in St. Louis we took a BUMPY, TWISTY, TURNY bus ride to get our rental car. (A little bit of foreshadowing, for those who know Owen’s history with carsickness). Got in our rental car and headed out. The hotel was very close to the airport, so I hopped in front with Benjamin to help navigate, even though that meant we couldn’t see Owen’s face since we didn’t have our mirror on the seat behind him as he still sits facing backwards.
After a few minutes I heard him whisper, “Mommy”. And then whimper. I thought he was just fussing, since he always whines in his carseat, and I babbled on and on, “You’re ok, buddy. Only a few more minutes. We’re almost there!”.
Then I heard it. That unforgettable sound of vomit erupting. Silence, and then a wail.
He puked EVERYWHERE. Just like the last time this happened, we had to make a game-time decision about what to do. We decided that stopping would be no help, so we just got to the hotel as fast as we possible could. Benjamin checked in while I took Owen to the bathroom to clean him up and take off his pukey clothes. Except for one thing. Benjamin couldn’t check in because we were at the wrong hotel.
So there we were. Puke-covered, naked toddler. Carseat cover dripping with vomit chunks. Nothing to clean with but paper towels and hand soap and WE HAD TO PUT THIS KID BACK IN THE CAR AND DRIVE AGAIN?! I literally considered wrapping him in towels and freaking walking to the correct hotel. But alas, it was too far. So we did the best we could, and tucked him back into his cold, wet seat for another car trip.
We called Benjamin’s sister and Dad to meet us at the door with cleaning supplies, towels and garbage bags. FINALLY got up to our real room at the correct hotel and thought the motion sickness drama was over.
It was not.
Oh no. It was just beginning.
Over the course of the next 2 days, I would estimate that Owen puked about 6 or 7 times. After car rides. After being picked up to wash his hands. Right before eating his next “meal”. He was a mess. We traveled everywhere with towels and trash bags and 4 changes of clothes. He barely ate or drank anything. Despite all of this, he was 100% his happy go lucky little self when not puking.
To be honest I don’t know if this is really motion sickness-related. The doctor seemed to think so after a phone consult where we told him all of the details, but it’s definitely possible it was some sort of stomach bug. Regardless, it was awful.
I’ll tell you more about the rest of the trip tomorrow, but suffice to say thank GOODNESS for Benadryl (which got us back to Boston without a single puking episode) and for being home.
This Place Is Now a Home 