Wednesday, May 2, 2012

96 Hours

In 96 hours we had some strange luck...

Yesterday and today seem to have settled down and I am thankful for that but the 96 hours prior to yesterday were just weird.  Blog worthy weird :)  So here goes...

Last week I joined a gym to try and get healthy.  So for the first month I can bring two guests at a time for free.  So on Friday, Jay and I decided to take Carter swimming.  We dropped Madelynn off with my mom and went to the Courthouse and enjoyed the pool and the hot tub.  Carter had a great time and was acting completely normal.  When we finished up we drove to my mom's to pick up Madelynn.  As soon as we got there Carter started acting strange.  He was whining and after a couple minutes started crying for no reason.  I was actually a little irritated because I just thought he was being naughty.  Jay held him for a bit and sat at the computer with him for a bit while I was feeding Madelynn.  The next thing I hear is a big splashing sound and Jay shouting whoaaaaaa... My first thought was he had a glass of water and spilled it but then I realized Carter didn't have water.  Then I knew he must have puked.  Carter has never puked before so this was one of those paniky moments for me.  I threw Madelynn at my mom and ran around the couch to see vomit everywhere and it was still coming.  My mom grabbed a bowl and I spent the next couple of minutes rubbing Carters back and watching him throw up everything he had eaten for days.  It was extremely painful to watch!  Not to mention that he had thrown up all over Jay, all over the floor, the chair, the computer desk, and even the keyboard for the computer.  Wow.  That was all I could think.  I had moments of thinking "what do I do?"  I was waiting for the adreneline to kick in and tell me what to do but there was vomit everywhere and I just stood there holding the bowl.  For those of you that don't know this about me I have a huge fear of throwing up.  I hate throwing up and I panic when others throw up within five miles of me...literally.  The great thing is that God gave me a supernatural desire to help my son and comfort him.  Not to mention I had a lot to clean up at my poor moms house.  I scrubbed, cleaned, and disinfected for at least 20 minutes and even had to clean again after he threw up again on the kitchen floor.  We finally made it out of there and got in the car to head home hoping and praying he wouldn't throw up in the car...he did.  Thankfully Jay caught most of it in the bowl because I drove so that we could take advantage of his long arms in case we needed to catch vomit.  It was quite the experience. 

As soon as we got home Jay and Carter showered, got clean clothes on, covered the couches and got Carter nice and snuggly on the couch with daddy.  And then he threw up again...and again, and again.  Everytime I would get Jay and Carter wiped off, the towels and blankets in the laundry room, and Carter settled down, it would start all over again.  I could not keep up with the laundry or with keeping Carter clean.  And during all of this time Madelynn was crying and needing to eat.  I started feeding her twice and both times Carter started throwing up all over Jay.  And honestly, it is a two person job when your two year old is puking.  I was so torn and kept thinking about how badly I needed and wanted to disinfect the whole house, I needed to disinfect his carseat, get the puke bowl that was still sitting on the front porch (wouldn't that have been a nice surprise if someone stopped by), get laundry going, feed my daughter, mop the bathroom floor because he threw up in there, clean my house in case Jay and I got sick, etc, etc...I was overwhelmed.  And I needed to keep Carter drinking but I knew he would throw it up.  I was so overwhelmed.  We decided to give him some apple juice mixed with water...big mistake!  Minutes later we saw that all over Carter and Jay.  Jay and Carter ended up having two showers that evening and I eventually went to the store with Madelynn to get Pedialyte.  Thankfully that worked and he was able to keep tiny amounts of that down at a time.  Finally about 8 he was done puking!  We kept him up till 10:30 just to make sure he was done throwing up then put him in bed fearing what our night would end up looking like.  God was so gracious to me though because Carter slept the entire night and never threw up again!  Even Madelynn had an amazing night only waking up once to eat.  Woohoo...was not expecting to have an amazing night! 

Saturday was pretty uneventful.  We laid low and kept Carter home all day.  I ran a couple errands and worked out at the gym but other than that we were home all day.  Sunday morning Jay got up to go to work and couldn't find the keys for the van (yes, we only have one set).  But at 4 in the morning I wasn't about to get about and search for keys and Jay was riding his bike to work anyway.  So I stayed home all day with both kids and didn't go to church just in case Carter was still sick.  I am working on my Master's degree right now and found out on Sunday morning that the class I just finished up was a class that I did not need and I had just waisted $1500 and three months of my life.  I was pretty devastated!  More on that later.  We had a date night planned for that evening and my dad and Lori were going to babysit so all day I just prayed that Carter was okay and that neither Jay or I caught the bug so that we could go out to dinner.  Well, as soon as Carter woke up from his nap I realized that I wasn't going to get to go out to dinner with Jay because Carter had a fever :(  I was devastated.  I needed a break so badly and couldn't believe I was going to have to call my dad and cancel.  We had tried the Sunday before to go out as well and that got cancelled too so this was a double disappointment for me.  The hardest part of all of it was that I had to tell my sweet boy that he didn't get to go to "papas" house.  He was so sad and it broke my heart! 

Thankfully I have a wonderful husband who came home and suggested we grab a pizza from Pizza Hut and take it to a park and then go walk around Toys R Us.  Brilliant!  A date night with my family is just as wonderful and I was ecstatic!  So I get the kids dressed, feed Madelynn, pack a couple things for the park, call and order a pizza...and we can't find the van keys...anywhere.  At this point I am on the verge of tears!  After probably 20 minutes of destroying our house trying to find the keys I decide I am desperate enough to get out of the house that I am going to take the Honda, drive to my moms and get her carseat (since Carter's was locked in the van), drive back home to get the family and go out like we had planned.  We had a nice time at the park and Carter was in heaven.  After the park we headed out to Toys R Us only to find out that they are closed because it is a Sunday evening...seriously? 

The next morning when Carter woke up with another fever I decided to cancel school so that I could stay home with my boy and help get him healthy.  By the way, still can't find the keys!  Later that morning while on the phone with Jay he tells me the he scuffed the handle on his new bike that he rode to work again that morning.  I thought, okay, no big deal.  So I ask him how he scuffed it...he tells me he fell off his bike.  Again, I thought, hmmm...  So I ask him if he is okay and he tells me that he may have broken his hand.  He has to ride over railroad tracks to get to work which were wet because it was raining and as soon as his front tire hit the track, it slipped to the left and he fell to the right catching himself with his hand.  Honestly, my first thought was "are you kidding me?!?!?!?!?!"  He had it checked out at the hospital while he was there (he does spend a lot of time at the hospital for his job) and the consensus seemed to be that it very likely was broken but the bone they thought was broken is a really hard one to see in an x-ray and that either way it would need to be splinted for a while.  About 1:30 he calls me saying he is in a ton of pain and can't use his hand at all and is coming home and had to take the next day off work as well.  Of course he can't ride his bike home and Carter was napping so we asked my dad to go pick him up and bring him home.  Oh and to add to all of this and my date night drama, we had planned to have my mom babysit that night so that we could go out...now I wasn't sure we were going to go again.  I felt like we weren't supposed to go on a date for some strange reason.  After he got home he headed down to the ER for x-rays which showed just what they thought...could be broken but can't really tell in the x-ray.  So he is in a lovely splint, can't go back to work until next Tuesday (all unpaid because we used all of his sick time when Madelynn was born), and won't be riding his new bike to work for a little while.

So now you may think I am super selfish but I told Jay as long as he could walk and eat we were still going out to dinner!  So finally at 6:30 (an hour and a half later than planned) we are walking out the door to go out.  And we can't find the Olive Garden gift card that was the reason we were going out to dinner in the first place.  Seriously, couldn't find it anywhere!  We really didn't want to spend money on dinner, especially after the whole hand thing and not being able to work for a week.  But, we decided it was necessary that we get out so we headed out the door planning to try the new Venti's just around the corner from our house.  We park, walk up to the door only to read a sign that says they closed at four for a Russian group.  Seriously...So we drive all the way to North Keizer to try Carusso's that we had heard great things about.  Closed on Mondays.  Are you kidding me?  So we end up at Best Little Road House and had a lovely dinner and then came straight home to a screaming baby girl and a tired and feverish little boy.  What a day!  What a week!

That ends the drama of our 96 hours...

The breaking point for me was when Carter woke up with a fever on Sunday afternoon and I had to cancel our date night.  I felt bad for being so upset about it but it was just that moment for me that I couldn't handle much else.  From my breaking point though my attitute improved greatly and everything else that happened was just funny.  Jay and I just had to laugh. 

Yesterday morning (May 1st) was a very refreshing morning for me.  I felt like it was God's way of refreshing me and helping me see that we could start fresh in a brand new day and a brand new month.  I love May because it is my birthday month and the last full month of school.  I love it even more now that I am a mom because of Mother's Day.  I love that it is the month before summer and the hope of more sunshine and summer activities. 

I am thankful for my husband who loves me very much.  I am thankful for two beautiful, healthy, happy kids who fill me with more love and joy than I new possible!  And I am thankful for all of my family and friends who are so supportive of me and my family and who encouraged me throughout my annoying week.  After Jay hurt his hand I had two people offer to bring us dinner that night.  Wow, what a blessing.  I am thankful.  I had to remind myself after those 96 hours of all the amazing blessings in my life.  We are blessed.

And Jay and I are still healthy and have not caught Carter's bug...miracle?

Oh, and we found the keys...
In Jay's pants pockets on the bedroom floor (pretty much the only place we didn't look and yet one of the most obvious places).  The weird thing is that I was the last one to drive the van so we still cannot figure out how they ended up in Jay's pants pocket.  A question I do plan on asking God someday when I get to Heaven :) 



  

1 comment:

  1. This is going to sound weird but I loved this post James!! I am sorry for your super crazy week!! But it's clear that God used it in some creative ways!....I loved how you recapped it here and how you ended the post. Totally made me smile to think of asking God about it when you get to heaven :) I'd say this Saturday is going to be just what you need, a little pampering and fun girl time! Can't wait! Love you friend!!

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