Mama Said (There'd Be Days Like This)

We traveled to the big city last weekend to visit with family and to help our nephew Micaiah celebrate his first birthday. When we woke up Saturday morning to pack and get ready, I noticed that Luke had a little cold. Well, sicknesses have prevented us from doing much of anything this year, and we have really started to miss out on things. The advice I had been getting from my mommy friends was to try to continue doing the things that you always had (babies are portable, even with the sniffles!) so we thought that we'd go ahead and just go. So we traveled down there and went to the party, making stops at all of the required shopping centers along the way (FIRST MISTAKE).

The party was fun, and it was fun to see Micaiah walking and emerging as such a little boy as he turns one! Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of him eating his cake (I'm starting develop a love/hate relationship with my camera).

We stayed over at Auntie Joni's house and visited with family that night. Luke was going downhill fast and had a really rough night. By Sunday morning, he was so stuffy and had a fever, and not eating much of anything. No big deal, I was told. Give him a little Tylenol, and you know, babies are portable, even with the sniffles! We were scheduled to pay more family a visit, so I texted them and told them that he had the fever and we wouldn't bring the bug over. She told me that they were resilient, and of course- bring him over! So we headed down south for the second family visit of the weekend, of course making stops at all of the required shopping centers along the way (SECOND MISTAKE).

We had fun visiting there too. We brought D. his Christmas and birthday presents and we took pictures of the boys wearing their matching Wild apparel.

We left the house and decided to head for home, since Luke wasn't feeling well AT ALL by this time, making stops at all of the required shopping centers along the way (THIRD MISTAKE).

Luke fell asleep in the car by the time we reached the halfway point of our trip home, and we decided to stop and eat (FOURTH MISTAKE). He was pretty much out, and we enjoyed a long, quiet meal. Since Luke was still out cold, we decided rather than feeding him, we'd drive the hour home and let him get home to rest. I bent over to kiss him on the cheek and accidentally brushed him with my hair, which caused a chain of events that my mom used to laughingly say "One day you will realize what I went through!".

Luke woke up. He screamed, so we decided we'd feed him the bottle right there. He did take 6 full ounces which we thought "Great- he hasn't been eating, so he needs this! Maybe he's feeling better!" (FIFTH MISTAKE). He was happy, so we decided to pack him up head for home. I decided to refill my jumbo-sized pop for the road (SIXTH MISTAKE). I set the pop down next to his car seat, and leaned over for just one more kiss...

My "too-big" purse knocked the pop over. The jumbo-sized Pepsi spilled. All over the floor, the table, the car seat.... EVERYWHERE. I grabbed a few napkins and tried my best to inconspicuously wipe it up, but I had no choice but to grab a few employees to help. So we had the full attention of the whole place when they dragged out a giant yellow mop bucket and those yellow signs. Andy decided he had enough attention, and decided to bring Luke out to the car. He made it all the way to the door when I saw something dripping from his car seat, and Andy running back to the table, and well, freaking out! It wasn't the Pepsi I had spilled all over, but it was white. What could be white? Formula! 6 ounces of formula that could now be considered Baby Vomit, dripping from his car seat, and my poor husband, not knowing what to do. By then we really had the full attention of the entire place! We unbuckled him and Andy is throwing him at me, yelling "CHANGE HIM!" I grabbed the Pepsi-covered diaper bag and ran to the bathroom, and proceeded to change him. I realized then and there, as I wiped the mix of Baby Vomit and Pepsi all over my son in an icky fast food restaurant bathroom, that THIS is what my mom and every other mom out there warned me about. That there would be days like this, and that being a mom isn't about the long weekends we used to take in the big city, shopping and bumming around. That it could turn into a feverish, sick kid who is looking at you with big eyes in the middle of an icky public restroom, covered in Pepsi and Baby Vomit, with eyes that clearly say "Help". Well, at that moment, I fought back my own tears, and wished I had someone to look at and say the same thing.... Help.

It turns out that Luke was really sick with RSV, and he had a really rough week. He had a hard time breathing, with a really bad cough and a fever. He's now on the upswing, eating again with no fever, so we should return back to normal by Monday. I know by talking with my mommy friends this week that this is the tip of the iceburg, that there would be more days like this to come. I'm hoping now I've learned from this road trip, that I should have not stopped at every major shopping center or exposed every single one of his cousins to RSV....that I should have listened to my gut and kept him safe and secure at home. Or I'd just reconsider ordering that Pepsi next time.