The Trip From Hell

Ok the title is a little extreme, but once you hear about our trip, you may think differently!





So I had been planning this trip to Minnesota ever since early November. I had seen that Southwest was offering $59 one way flights and thought up this wonderful trip. It is near impossible to travel with Brady alone in a car for 6 hours and since I'm pregnant and figured it would probably be snowing, I enlisted my dear father to fly out here and help us drive. I thought it would be a wonderful break for me and would help the deployment go by faster. Everything was all set, we were all packed, and we were ready to enjoy some time with family and friends in Minnesota.





The first thing to go wrong (I should have seen it all coming with this) was that my dad's flight got canceled the day he was going to fly here. There were no non-stop flights from Minneapolis to Omaha and he had a connection in Chicago. Well of course there was a snow storm and he was unable to get out here until the following evening. Ok, no big deal. Just a couple changes in plans and we were on our way. The drive to Minnesota was fairy uneventful, it snowed most of the drive but it wasn't sticking so it wasn't a big deal. Brady was entertained by Elmo dvds and before we knew it, we were at my parent's house. Everything was going well, we put Brady to bed, and were going over plans for the week. Well Brady had other plans and that included no sleep. Brady refused to lay down and just wanted to either play or cry and by the time 4 am hit I was beside myself. My mom came down and I burst into tears. "It is 4 am and I have not slept yet, I don't know what else to do....HELP!" Well it turns out Brady was developing a nasty, nasty cold and wasn't feeling well. I think he ended up getting 3 hours of sleep and was screaming because he was so tired. Fun way to start the vacation!


Nana, I don't feel good! We went up and spent the day with Nana and Brady enjoyed reading his new books, playing with magnets, and emptying drawers even though he wasn't feeling well.

So sleep schedules were way off due to this fun evening and Brady was just a terror. Super crabby, whiny, and full of snot!

Of course Brady got all of us sick in the house but he got better and I tried bringing him to fun places to play. He would be ok for about 15 minutes and then just throw himself on the floor having tantrums and wouldn't listen to a thing I said. Yep, I was that mom with that kid. I mean Brady has been by no means an easy child, but where did my little boy go? He even made Brad look bad! And not to mention that the weather was horrible. We have been spoiled this winter so far here in Omaha so the -35 windchill and snow we encountered were not too fun!




Here he is at an indoor park in Bloomington, MN. It's actually where Brian and I had our 11th grade prom. He could have cared less. :)



I managed to get out a few nights and see friends and it was amazing!! I honestly have the best friends. It's great when you can not see some people for months and then just pick up right where you left off!



Brady's godmother Laura was so nice to take the day off one day to hang out with Brady and I. We went to the Maple Maze (an indoor park) in Maple Grove and Brady was in rare form. He started off with screaming his head off, hitting his fist against things, and hit another child (which he has never done!). I was beside myself, what the heck is going on with this child? I think I may have said a million times to Laura, I don't know what is going on, he's not normally like this! Well he finally warmed up and ended up having a great time. Here is a picture of him sliding with Laura.

He must have climbed on this thing 100 times!

He loved this car too.

Papa got back from bringing Aunt Cat back to school in Boston so we headed up to Brooklyn Park to hang out with him. Nana was sick with a stomach bug so we missed her but Brady had a good time playing. Here a Skyline Chili box has turned into a hat...naturally!

Silly Brady with his Papa

Just the guys hanging out. Brady loves to say hi Maaaaaccccck!

Papa and Mack, let's dance!!

It was our last day in Minnesota and we spent the morning at Mall of America with Nana and Papa. This picture was a rare thing: Brady holding a hand. He had his own agenda this day. No stroller, no hand holding, just walk wherever you please. Because every 21 month old should have free reign on the Mall of America. It was a frustrating morning for me for sure. I had worked so hard with Brady to hold hands and he just refused to listen and threw several tantrums. I was so thankful Nana and Papa were there! After the week I had had with Brady's behavior, I had just had enough. I couldn't help but think, how the heck am I going to do this with two? And is this what behavior is going to be like now that we're almost 2? If I had only known how much worse it was going to get......

I had everything packed up and we were 20 minutes from leaving. We were stalling a little because I just felt off, kind of felt like I had a fever and we were just waiting a little bit to make sure I was all good to travel. Well Brady's playing and then all of a sudden runs towards me and throws up everywhere. Oh. No. I knew that Nana had that stomach bug earlier in the week and it wasn't looking good for us. My dad and I talked it over, ok let's just give it an hour or two to see if he gets sick again and maybe we can still leave. Well 15 minutes later he does it again. And then 10 minutes later, again. And it went on like that for the next couple of hours. I was stressing out big time. It's scary to watch your child be sick but not only that, we had to get back to Omaha to get my dad on a flight. After the week I had had with Brady being sick, not sleeping, throwing tantrums every 5 minutes, dealing with cold weather, exhaustion of my own, having a cold, missing my husband, being 22 weeks pregnant, being sick of trying to explain Brady's behavior, and now him vomiting with no end in sight, I just lost it.

It got to the very scary point when it had been 7 hours and he had vomited over 20 times, throwing up just about every 20 minutes. We made the decision to take him to Children's Hospital and spent over 6 hours in the ER. He threw up a total of 27 times and his last few episodes had a blood tinge to them. They said that he'd just had a bad reaction to a stomach bug and they wanted to hook him up to IV fluids and give him anti-nausea medication. He kept begging us for something to drink too and I just felt so horrible telling him he couldn't have anything to drink while we were there. How can you explain to a 21 month old that he has to wait until his anti-nausea medication has gotten into his system before he can have any fluids? It was horrible having to see him go through all of that and I thank God that my dad was there because he kept reassuring me that it was all going to be ok. We finally got home at 7 am after being up for 25 hours and got some sleep. Needless to say, my dad had to cancel his flight since it didn't look like we were going to be going anywhere anytime soon.

Brady did ok that next day. He didn't vomit at all but was very fussy (which is understandable after what he had gone through!). I was exhausted and emotionally spent and just praying that I didn't get this stomach bug because surely I would end up in the hospital as well. Well...fast forward a day, Brady tries milk for the first time and throws up all over. I was thinking oh goodness I cannot go through this again! Luckily he just wasn't ready for milk and was fine the rest of the day. I felt off again, thought maybe it was because I watched him throw up, but I felt horrible the whole morning and afternoon and after getting off of skype with Brian I threw up. At this point I just said, really? How much does God think I can possibly handle?! Luckily I only threw up twice but I felt horrid. There's nothing like feeling nauseous and having a baby kick you constantly from inside, even when you are throwing up.

Well we finally did feel better but then of course my parents got it. We had already stayed 5 days past when we were going to leave and it didn't look like anyone would be feeling well enough to drive back with us anytime soon and we really didn't have a plan as far as how they were going to get back, so I just made the decision to drive Brady, Rascal, and I home myself. At this point I had dealt with a lot, what was 6 hours in a car with a screaming toddler? Brady did so well though (besides throwing up once in the car, but at that point didn't phase me much) and we made it home in record time. It was so wonderful to be home and back in my bed knowing it was all over! Brady and I have finally regained our appetites and energy. Besides him teething (which I think was part of our problem in Minnesota besides illness, change, and missing Daddy) we are doing much better and are SO happy to report that Brian will be home soon!!! So that was our trip! And that may also explain why we may not be back in Minnesota anytime soon too! :) And I should note, it wasn't all bad. We really did have a good time seeing friends and family, it was just unfortunate that the bad things kind of overshadowed the good. Thank you to everyone that helped out and sent well wishes, I really appreciate it!!! One day we will all laugh about it, just not quite at that point yet! :)