Sickie- Part one

You knew it was coming, the blog that unwraps the ugly and ridiculous details of our life.  Let’s start at the beginning, before everything really hit the fan. 

Last Monday, Myles abandoned left us to go to a training in Anchorage.  I’m a supportive wife and proud of his accomplishments so I was all for it.  Then it dawned me that I’d be doing the parenting thing all by my lonesome for the whole week.  Do you know how hard it is to bathe a sometimes moody toddler and a 7 month old at the same time, alone?  Forget soap and shampoo, if they end up wet and don’t crack their heads open on the tile, it’s a moderately successful bath.  We decided to take advantage of the opportunity and join Daddy for a couple nights.  We’d meet up with some friends, do some shopping and hit the children’s museum.  Perfect, right? Of course not.

Once the kids were in bed on Wednesday, I made lists, packed a ton of stuff, made sure to remember things like bathing suits, food, extra everything for the kids and Motrin, just in case.  I loaded up the Land Cruiser and proceeded on my way to a night of anxiety laced dreams of driving off the side of mountains, oncoming traffic coming into my lane, spinning out of control on icy roads, you know, the usual stuff in my mind.

Thursday morning Molli woke up, sniffed and said, “I’m sick.” I didn’t think much of it because she always assumes she’s sick if her nose is stuffy. The chorus of snoring vibrating through the back seat validated that both kids did, in fact, have stuffy noses.  I said a little prayer that whatever kind of sick was going on would stop there.  We’ve had enough of that around here, and certainly didn’t need more, especially considering I couldn’t find Molli’s inhaler before we left the house. 

We made it to the hotel and found that the pool was closed.  Fine, just one less bag to bring in. I did my best pack mule impression and hauled both kids and all our crap in just one impressive load.  I looked like a cross between a 31 bags advertisement and a “what not to do” on a chiropractic pamphlet.  The hotel room was a very standard one room, two queen beds sort of deal, with a little kitchenette area. I dumped everything just far enough in that the door would close and got right to settling in.  First things first, set up the pack-n-play.  He may be my second child, but I wasn’t about to let Gavin crawl around on that carpet. We got all moved in, made plans with friends for 9:30 the next morning and greeted Daddy with big hugs when he knocked on the door.  Hallelujah! The week solo is about to get easier!

Nope.

Fast forward a few hours and you have the perfect storm for a super crummy night.  I’ll spare the details, but it went pretty much like this.  Bath/bedtime stuff, Gavin sleeping in the pack-n-play, Molli in bed 2, Myles and I in bed 1.  Molli cries out because she can’t breathe.  Gavin wakes up.  I suck the snot from Molli’s nose.  She lies back down while Myles rubs her back and I nurse Gavin to sleep.  Molli cries about being sick, wakes Gavin up, she agrees to sleep in the pack-n-play after a snot sucking fight.  Myles in bed 2, I nurse Gavin back to sleep in bed 1.  Molli cries etc.  This scenario repeats itself, rotating sleeping arrangements, from 7:45pm until 3:15am when I’ve had enough.  I’m still sending out apologetic vibes to everyone on the first or second floor at the Extended Stay.  I head out in search of medicine while Molli watches Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. (It was an uncomfortable experience and in hindsight, I should have persuaded Myles to go.  I had no business going out in a town I don’t know. It was snowy, slick and all the freaks and drunks were out. My bad).  Benadryl and baby vapor rub did the trick well enough...phew!

After two and a half hours of sleep everyone was up at 7 (WHY???).  We canceled plans to meet up with friends and nixed our hopes and dreams for the weekend.  We drove home after lunch and, thankfully, the kids slept nearly the entire way. I don’t know how I was still functioning, but I do know that I was given the opportunity to spend ample time with the kids throughout the next night too. Molli was, in fact, quite sick.  Unfortunately, she wasn’t the only one.

Stay tuned for the rest of the saga.