New Years vacation from Hell

Luthien, Where should I begin?! A couple weeks before New Years it became the plan to take a trip to Utah. Dad really wanted to go snowboarding, see family, and most importantly, take you to the snow. Mom agreed to the trip with the condition that we stay at the very least 3, but preferably 4 nights, to make up for the 8 hour drive. A couple days before we left, dad started feeling sick with his Crohn's. He went to acupuncture and felt pretty good that evening and the following day, so we went forward with our vacation plans, despite there being a few other "signs" that it might not be the best idea. You were such a little angel on the trip up. Dad purchased a portable dvd player with the intention of taking it back, just to "try it out," much to mom's dismay. We only "needed" to use it one time for a 30 minute program when you got fussy, which is how much you're allowed to watch in a typical day anyway. Dad was in a great deal of pain the whole way up, so he was stretched out in the front seat while mom was totally smooshed (baby belly and all) behind him. I don't want to go into too much detail about the yucky parts of the trip, other than to say that the very same evening we got to Aunt Shelly's house for the New Year's party, it was determined by Uncle Kirk, an ER doctor himself, that he should go to the emergency room. He was admitted to the hospital so we ended up just playing around the house the next day. Here are some highlights:


You got to play with your second cousin Liam, who is only a month older than you. Check out these awesome handmade wooden rocking toys made by Uncle Kevin...



Here you are playing in the bath together. You taught Liam the art of splashing which we captured in an adorable video; Liam taught you how to say "whale" and "shark." I guess we need to review our sea animals more often!



Don't let the next pictures fool you- Dad put on a smiling face for the camera (a good one, too!) because he was happy to see you in the snow for about 10 minutes. He had just been discharged from the hospital since we were on vacation, and the trip was cut short so that, as it turned out, he could get care at the hospital close to our home.


Here are a few pictures of you with Mama, walking in the snow and looking at ducks on the half frozen pond.



For some reason mom's belly looks pretty small in this picture- also very deceiving!! I am 22 weeks pregnant with your baby sister/brother in the picture, but I look much further along
than I did with you at this stage!



And finally, the family shot....



Let me try to quickly sum up the remainder of the trip. We drove home at the absolute worst time of day for you (left around 3:00 p.m.). Dad was still in lots of pain, which again made for an uncomfortable ride home for mom, except this time you were very antsy and therefore fussy so that somehow added to the discomfort. You wouldn't take your afternoon nap like I thought you would right as we started driving. We turned on a short video while you ate some of my pasta and you ate a TON of it. Mom's instincts kicked in and I mentioned more than once that I thought we should stop feeding you. Dad and Nana, however, convinced me that we should feed you until you refused, since we're always so worried about your weight/calorie intake. 7:45 (your bedtime) rolled around and even though you skipped your nap and seemed exhausted, you were still awake. Everyone decided to stop at Subway. At this point mom had reached the end of her rope and wasn't paying attention to anything that was going on. Some of our family members (not naming names) decided to let you delve into a bag of cheetos, drink a whole juice box, and sample their chocolate milk. As you know, you have never tasted a cheeto, you only drink juice that is freshly juiced by me, and you've most definitely never had chocolate milk (or anything that contains high fructose corn syrup for that matter). We get back in the car to continue the journey home and you are acting totally crazy (sorry, it's true)! By 10:00 p.m.- an hour you've never seen before, I felt at a loss. Both Nana and I had tried rocking you to sleep and every time we thought you were almost asleep you seemed to have some sort of convulsion that made you SCREAM and wake up. We all concluded that you were totally overtired, especially since you can get pretty squirmy when you are going to sleep (though the sudden movements/screaming were pretty strange...). I finally decided to try putting on just one more half hour program to see if maybe you'd just fall asleep to that, since singing, rocking, and letting you just fuss in the car seat had not worked. About 5 minutes into the show, throw up just started POURING out of your mouth and did not stop for what seemed to be about 2 minutes. It got all over the dvd player (yeah, the one we were planning on returning), all over you, the carseat, and somehow all over Nana. We still had about 2 hours left of our trip, which was entirely nauseating for someone with an acute digestive problem and a pregnant woman. After cleaning up as best as we could, we continued on. You sat on dad's lap for a bit, and again, you started throwing up as though it would never end. At this point I decided to nurse you, to get some fluids back into your poor little body, and so that you could fall asleep. I only normally nurse you in the mornings now, because it has become excruciatingly painful and also very fatiguing being pregnant (plus for the past couple months you haven't been all that into it), but of course I made an exception. I nursed you the whole trip home and you finally fell asleep. We got home around midnight, and from that point until 7:30 a.m. when you woke up, I pretty much nursed you about half the time. It was the only way you could settle down and sleep. Poor baby.


I don't think I need to mention why I think you got so sick. It was obvious to everyone, and actually in some ways I'm glad that it happened (okay, not really, but you get my point...), because it was an interesting case study of how those type of foods can effect a body that is essentially pure, or free of processed foods. Unfortunately for most people the body doesn't react that quickly and direct. I was thinking that is because when we are given those foods from the start, we tend to develop some sort of tolerance that masks the potential long-term effects.... heart disease, stroke, cancer, CROHN'S and other autoimmune/chronic illnesses, the list goes on. After all, diseases are progressive... nothing novel, just one of the many food-related issues that have been on my mind lately. Sorry to ramble...


Anyhow, the day after the drive home/throwing up incident was absolutely terrible. I don't know if it was worse than some of the days of endless crying with you as a newborn, but it definitely brought me to tears and prayer so it must have been bad. Basically you were acting like a completely different child, and it scared me. I realize now you were just tired and still sick, but at the time it was very difficult for mama to handle. The day after that day (I won't go into any more detail about that great and terrible day) you were totally recovered. No fits, no tantrums, no tears- you and I just had a good day together, even with dad back in the hospital. Your sleeping is still a little off, which is why I'm finally standing my ground and saying no more road trips for awhile. When we do take a road trip next, it will be for a very, VERY good reason, and we will stay in one place for longer than 2 days. Dad has promised to sacrifice some of his spontaneity for all of our sanity and well-being.


On a more positive note, you are continuing to learn lots of new words. You finally learned "thank you" and you will repeat almost all of the colors, but you will only say "yellow" and "blue" totally independently. You're still not really putting two words together, but that's okay. You also started saying "meeou" instead of just "mou" when you make the sound for a cat. This was a big change because you had been saying "mou" for over 6 months now (plus you say it a lot since I think it's your favorite animal). Okay, I'll have to do a separate entry with all your development. That's all for now.


Good night little one,
Mama