Karina and I headed off for what was to be the best vacation ever...visiting Danise and her kids and husband in New Mexico, and on top of that, getting to see the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta! I had never been able to visit her in October before because I was always teaching. All of us were looking forward to this vacation so much. Little did we know...
We got there after a fabulous pair of flights. We flew from Norfolk to Orlando, where our connection to Albuquerque was. On the first flight, I was so nervous because I'd never flown with a baby alone. Karina was PERFECT. She laughed at a lady across the aisle the whole time the plane was taking off, so she didn't cry, and then slept the rest of the flight. We actually had the whole row to ourselves on this flight, which was so nice. Then, at the end of the flight, the same nice lady helped me carry my roller bag and waited with me for the stroller to be brought up from gate check. She walked to my gate with me, just chatting. She flies that way a lot, I guess, for business. She was SO NICE. Once at our gate, she said goodbye and went off to get her own connection. Karina and I got ourselves straight, I fed and changed her (into a double-stuffed bumGenius diaper for the 4+ hour flight). Then we got in line for the second flight. This one was FULL. No empty row for us! Plus, Southwest no longer seats families before general boarding--now they do it between groups A and B, which totally stinks! We did get a window seat at the way back of the plane though. A nice lady sat down on the aisle seat, and then as it filled up, another lady had to sit between us. It turned out to be a great arrangement. They were the nicest people--Terri was the lady on the aisle, and Jen sat between us. Karina was an absolute angel, perfect, no crying at all. She played some and slept some, and "flirted" with Brad the flight attendant. Terri was knitting something, and I asked her about it. She said she had knit a bunch of hats for adults and thought she'd try a child's pattern with the leftover yarn. She was using a loom. It was really cool. Then she GAVE ME THE HAT FOR KARINA!!! Jen and I were both moved to tears--it was so sweet. I couldn't believe it. Terri said it was to commemorate Karina's trip and being so good! By the way, no leaks on any flights with her overstuffed BGs!
We landed in Albuquerque and it was really hard to say good bye to these two sweet ladies. We met Danise and Colin and Paige, and it was joyful. I got Karina changed, and off we went to enjoy our wonderful vacation. Colin and Paige kept Karina from crying in the car (I had expected meltdown to be imminent, but it was not!). They played with her and she absolutely loved them! At Danise's house, they played and it was so great...Colin is almost 8 and Paige is 6, so they kind of helped watch Karina. She slept all night in the borrowed pack n play, and we started out great the next day. I put her in a Wonder Wrap just like at home, because that is what works best for us. I brought two covers, 8 prefolds, 7 Super Soaker inserts, and 7 BG small inserts.
By Wednesday evening, Karina had developed a low grade fever. I thought that it was just from teething, because her top teeth are coming in big-time. Overnight, the fever stayed moderate, but the next morning, she was feeling really hot to me. I took her temperature and it was 100.4. I called my pediatrician and they recommended that I take her somewhere to be checked out. Danise and her kids had been at the one event they couldn't cancel, so I was home with her alone when I got this information. When they came back, I told her and she had me call her kids' pediatrician. We got an appointment for that afternoon. About 20 minutes later, as I stood in Danise's kitchen holding Karina, she threw up everything all over me and the floor. Thank God for Danise's cool head, for she started cleaning and asking what she could do. I was just stunned. My baby had never been sick before!! We tried to get an earlier appointment, but there wasn't one. Karina fell asleep for a while, luckily, so I could shower. We went to the doctor and discovered she had strep throat! Apparently it was going around. They prescribed amoxycillin and gave her some Motrin for the fever. Back at Danise's with prescription in hand, we continued to push through our now-miserable day. Karina felt bad, wouldn't eat, cried. Totally unlike her normal self. I was so unhappy. I couldn't think about anything. I had Tylenol, so I gave her that for the fever. During the night, she woke up crying so I put her in bed with me. She felt like she was on fire. I had given her the Tylenol too recently to give her more, so I put a cool cloth on her head. It didn't seem to help. I took her temp as best I could, but with that kind of thermometer, she was having none of it. She was screaming and crying. I was sure she was waking everyone up. The temp I got was 102.5. I called my pediatrician's after hours number and they said I needed to get her Motrin because it works better on a fever. By this point, I was in tears. Plus, the on-call doctor was hassling me about the time difference. Really? WHO CARES?? I gave her the Tylenol 45 minutes ago, doctor, so does it really matter if it's 11pm, 1am, or 3am? I couldn't figure out the time difference, I was too upset.
I went upstairs and woke poor Danise, who is a trooper and the greatest friend ever, and she took me to WalMart. We got the Motrin and a few other things, like juice, and she bought a new kind of thermometer for her family, which would have the added bonus of my being able to use it, too. We headed back home, gave Karina the Motrin (by the way, she was fighting us on EVERY dose of every medicine we were giving her. She kept spitting it out and screaming) and went back to bed. Her fever was definitely better the next day, and in the morning she seemed better, but as the day progressed she got worse. This was our Friday. We had wanted to go to the Balloon Fiesta on Saturday, but that was just not going to happen. Marc took the kids out to a movie and McDonalds as a treat for being so good (they SOOOOO deserved it!) and Danise and I watched the (horrible) movie, "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past". We hated it. It was stupid. Anyway, the night passed without incident, and the next day Karina was definitely feeling better. We attempted to go to a local trail, but it was just not happening. Karina was too fussy. I think we were out of the house for a whole 45 minutes.
We made plans to go to the Balloon Fiesta on Sunday. Karina was acting more and more like her old self, and everyone seemed to be doing okay. Paige was running a low-grade fever, off and on, but didn't feel sick, or act sick. We decided to go. We got up super early, with all our warm clothes, and off we went. It was strange that there weren't any of the long lines we had expected. Hmmm. Then they said on the radio that the winds were really high and the launch was postponed til 730. Hmmmm. Finally we got out, Marc helped me get Karina situated in the snuggly, with coat snapped around us, and another coat over Karina's legs, and gloves and a hood that tied on me...it was so funny! Finally we were ready. We went in, immediately had to try out the porta potties, and then headed for some food. There weren't many balloons on the ground. Hmmmm. Then, as we stood at a rack stuffing our faces with doughnuts and breakfast burritos, a news man came over and said he was doing a story on the cancellation, and could he interview Marc. Well, that's how we found out it was canceled. The cool part is Marc did get on the news!
http://www.kob.com/article/stories/S1186056.shtml?cat=500
We went back to Danise's house, feeling sort of strange. The day just seemed off somehow. We figured Monday would be more normal, my last day there, and we'd go to Target and look for jammies for Karina, let Colin pick out his birthday gift, the usual stuff we do when we're together. Except that Colin started running a high fever. When it got up around 104, they took him to the doctor and lo and behold he had strep throat. Sigh. Turns out Paige had it too, and probably Danise.
The next morning, Marc took me and Karina to the airport. She was so good on both flights, again, even though she was still congested and had a bit of a cough. We made an appointment to see our doctor when we got home. When we went in, it turned out she STILL had strep. Apparently, penicillin derivatives don't work as well as they used to on strep throat. So we're on a new antibiotic, and she finishes that up this weekend.
In all, the trip was weird. We (me and Danise) were disappointed, I flipped out over Karina's sickness, Colin and Paige got sick and I barely got to see them. It was just a general bummer. Now, Danise and I both feel more sad than usual, because it feels like we didn't really get to spend much time together.
My recommendation: don't get strep throat when you're on vacation. But if you do, make sure you have a good friend to help you out.
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