In the early fall we planned a trip to the Dominican Republic for my brother-in-law's 40th birthday. My parents were on board to watch M, so we made arrangements to stop off in Florida before heading to the Caribbean. The next day we were to take a limo an hour and a half south to the Miami airport to board a flight to Punta Cana where we would spend three nights at a swanky resort.
Leading up to our flight last Wednesday M was a bit snotty, but I didn't think anything of it. I packed the nose frida, some saline, and off we went. We arrived in Florida safe and sound, repacked for our 6:30 AM departure the next day and we all went to sleep.
Around 10 PM M awoke crying (which is very rare.) My husband went and consoled her and she quickly fell back asleep. At midnight she was screaming again so I went in to her room where I found my baby burning up. I quickly took her out of the pack and play and took her temperature- 102. She started coughing and wailing and saying "my ears hurt Mama!" so I gave her some pain medication and put her in the guest bed next to me. What followed was five hours of temperature taking, boogie sucking, rocking, walking around and very little sleep.
When she awoke at six Thursday morning she still had a high temp, was inconsolable, and (shocker) began throwing up any liquid we gave her.
So there I was, on two hours sleep, so freaking ready for a fabulous adults only vacation, the limo guy is at the door, I have a screaming feverish infant in my arms who won't go to anyone but Mama! and I am covered in puke.
My head was spinning- do I stay with her? Do I just leave her with my parents and go? Does my husband stay too? Do we cancel the trip? Do we reschedule our flights? Why now??
It was a chaotic few minutes, with my dad cleaning puke up off the floor, me changing for the second time, the limo driver hanging out in the open front doorway, my mom giving me the "you know what I would do if I were you..." and in the end I kissed my husband goodbye and stayed with my sick peanut, and my husband was given the task of changing my flights when he got to the airport so I could come later in the day.
We had decided that he had to go since it was his brothers birthday weekend...but did he? At the time I agreed with him, but when he left I couldn't help but wish he was there with me during all this. I felt like I had to stay, as her mother, but why didn't he have to stay? There was no way I could leave her. It was breaking my heart to see her like this, clinging to my neck. She didn't want anyone else but me, so it really didn't make any sense for him to stay, as we just would have had to pay to change two flights then...but still I was the slightest bit angry about the situation.
So I stayed with M, like a good mom, and took her to the doctor and it turned out she had a double ear infection again. The second one in two months. The doctor thinks that the mucous she had in her head just manifested into an ear infection on the plane. She was put on antibiotics and sent home.
We were planning to change my flights to the next day, which would mean being in DR for 48 hours. Luckily (for my own sanity) it ended up that I had to leave that afternoon, while she was napping, because it was a reward flight and that was the only availability.
It is not ideal to arrive in the DR, at 10 PM, by yourself, as a lady. But I arrived, only 10 hours late, in desperate need of a cocktail (being pregnant at an all inclusive resort is like a kick in the lady land), but instead enjoyed a bubble bath.
My parents survived three nights with a sick toddler, and now know every line to Toy Story, and M is on the mend. All in all it wasn't a terrible situation, but just another Motherly Guilt incident.
We are off to Disney for the next few days so I will have lots of stories next week.
Love to all from sunny Florida.
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Location:A motherly decision
Sounds tough on everybody - but I think you made the right call. With an ear infection, there's not much more that you can do other than give antibiotics and watch TV. On a side note, does she get a lot of ear infections? Because you might want to consider ear tubes, which changed Honey's life for the better!
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