Sickness and Driving
This last week Gideon got sick. Timmy has had a cold since two weeks before Gideon was born. No one else had gotten it, so we were feeling fairly safew, but then the day after Gideon's one-week checkup, he came down with the cold. Rea started sneezing, too, and Sara claims she's sick as well though Alison hasn't seen any evidence of it. No fun!
Timmy is almost better - just a lingering cough at night - and Rea can blow her own nose and be fine, but Gideon was stuffed up and couldn't breathe. Alison stayed up with him Tuesday and Wednesday nights to hold him upright so he could breathe a little better.
By Thursday she was utterly exhausted (Thursday was not a good day), so Mike took the baby between feedings Thursday night. He was starting to get a little better by then: Mike got a solid 3 hour chunk of sleep and some smaller naps with Gideon sleeping on his mattress. (We have Gideon's mattress on the floor and a mat next to it for a grown-up to sleep on, and when he's not sick, he lets us sleep pretty well as long as one of us is next to him and can reach over and pat him as needed.)
That was just in time, because Friday we needed to pack for our annual Thanksgiving at the beach house in San Diego with the Poulsons. Alison felt much better after a good night's sleep and cleaned out the car and packed the non-clothes essentials before Mike got done with work. Then in the evening we cleaned the house (which we'd let slide for a few days) and packed clothes and food for the drive. We let Rea pack for herself and the younger kids because she really wanted to. She might not be ready for that much responsibility, though; we ended up with not enough clothes for Timmy. Oops.
Saturday we got up at 5 and loaded the car and nursed the baby. We were on the road a little after 6. We made much better time than Alison anticipated - Gideon was wonderful in the car, not screaming except for one short stretch and accepting a pacifier to space out the feedings to every 4 hours. We only had to stop twice to feed him, and we got to the beach house by 5:30pm CA time (about 12 hours of driving, which is what we estimate without a two-week-old baby along). The big kids were very good, too, singing along with the music we brought and letting us listen to Castle in the Air, the audiobook we chose. Rea liked the story and Sara liked that it had princesses and Timmy took a nap during it. They were all very cooperative and didn't complain about the drive.
We are all so happy to be in California! All of Alison's siblings are here, which won't happen again for a while (Andy can't come from Tajikhistan every year), and we are loving being with them and the grandparents and all the cousins: 11 kids ages 2 weeks through 6 years running around. It's great! We are going to have a wonderful week.
Timmy is almost better - just a lingering cough at night - and Rea can blow her own nose and be fine, but Gideon was stuffed up and couldn't breathe. Alison stayed up with him Tuesday and Wednesday nights to hold him upright so he could breathe a little better.
By Thursday she was utterly exhausted (Thursday was not a good day), so Mike took the baby between feedings Thursday night. He was starting to get a little better by then: Mike got a solid 3 hour chunk of sleep and some smaller naps with Gideon sleeping on his mattress. (We have Gideon's mattress on the floor and a mat next to it for a grown-up to sleep on, and when he's not sick, he lets us sleep pretty well as long as one of us is next to him and can reach over and pat him as needed.)
That was just in time, because Friday we needed to pack for our annual Thanksgiving at the beach house in San Diego with the Poulsons. Alison felt much better after a good night's sleep and cleaned out the car and packed the non-clothes essentials before Mike got done with work. Then in the evening we cleaned the house (which we'd let slide for a few days) and packed clothes and food for the drive. We let Rea pack for herself and the younger kids because she really wanted to. She might not be ready for that much responsibility, though; we ended up with not enough clothes for Timmy. Oops.
Saturday we got up at 5 and loaded the car and nursed the baby. We were on the road a little after 6. We made much better time than Alison anticipated - Gideon was wonderful in the car, not screaming except for one short stretch and accepting a pacifier to space out the feedings to every 4 hours. We only had to stop twice to feed him, and we got to the beach house by 5:30pm CA time (about 12 hours of driving, which is what we estimate without a two-week-old baby along). The big kids were very good, too, singing along with the music we brought and letting us listen to Castle in the Air, the audiobook we chose. Rea liked the story and Sara liked that it had princesses and Timmy took a nap during it. They were all very cooperative and didn't complain about the drive.
We are all so happy to be in California! All of Alison's siblings are here, which won't happen again for a while (Andy can't come from Tajikhistan every year), and we are loving being with them and the grandparents and all the cousins: 11 kids ages 2 weeks through 6 years running around. It's great! We are going to have a wonderful week.
Comments
Post a Comment