A change of scenery



The vacation planner

I think my husband, Mike,  could see that I was seriously stressed out, so he turned an upcoming business trip he had into a mini vacation.  It wasn't far away, but it meant no cleaning or cooking.  It was just a couple nights away in a hotel where we could "get away and relax".  That sounded great to me!  Count me in!

Rest and Relaxation!

I made arrangements with my mom to watch Michael and Ryan for the weekend, but I decided to take Christopher with us.  I'm not sure how I thought this was going to allow me to "get away from it all", but I just didn't feel comfortable leaving him.  Besides, asking my mom to watch Christopher as well was just too much.  Michael and Ryan were plenty of "circus" for one person to handle. 

With the suitcases in the car, Christopher in his car seat, and a healthy supply of  beach towels we headed off to "relax".  Looking back now, I would definitely not use the word "relax" to describe what would turn out to be nothing short of disastrous.

It all started out great.  We arrived at the hotel as scheduled and unpacked our things.  I set up a make-shift nursery, and then we headed out to get some dinner.  Nothing had changed with Christopher, but I told myself that at least we were doing it in a more "relaxed setting" where there were no dishes or laundry to do.  At that point I figured that this was the closest thing I was going to get to a real vacation, so I decided to count my blessings and enjoy my time away even if I was covered in beach towels and baby vomit.

The next day Christopher and I went to the meeting with my husband.  The meeting was being held in a banquet room at a hotel and there were a lot of people in attendance.  I spent most of the day going back and forth from the table where we were sitting out to the hallway in order to care for Christopher. 

I remember thinking how thankful I was that Christopher wasn't crying as much as he usually did at home.  He was unusually quiet.   Maybe the long car ride had soothed him.  Maybe he was "getting away from it all" and "relaxing" too.  That turned out to be wishful thinking.

As the day went on, Christopher was crying less and sleeping more.  He wasn't eating much, and what he did eat came right back up.  This was unusual even for him.  Then I realized that he stopped having wet diapers.  He was about 2 months old, and I was concerned that he was becoming dehydrated. 

I got up from the table where we were sitting at and headed for the hallway along the little trail I had inevitably made on the carpeting of the banquet room.  I tried to feed Christopher.  He wasn't interested in eating much, but then it happened.  He started vomiting so hard that green bile covered the beach towel burp rag.  He didn't cry.  He just closed his eyes, went back to sleep, and was eerily quiet.  Okay, I said to myself, that's it.  Something is very wrong!

My husband had come back to check on us, and when he saw the look on my face he knew it was time to go, vacation over! 

This time we didn't load the car, we threw our stuff in.  Mike pointed the car northward, and we drove off towards a very uncertain future.


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More tomorrow...