Florida - Day 1

For the next week or so, I'll be using this blog as a journal of sorts to keep my family in MN (and anyone else who's interested!) informed about our Florida trip. My mom, Olivia and I left yesterday afternoon. Getting out of Minneapolis went fairly smoothly. Upon check-in at the airport, we were told our plane was delayed 20 minutes - nothing as far as delays go. We walked the concourse and looked out the windows to pass the time. I had a suitcase full of wrapped dollar-store toys to keep Olivia entertained and tons of snacks. When we boarded, I asked the flight attendant to fill O's bottle with hot water for a little formula snack during take-off. We were sitting waaay in the back so it was super noisy and it was super bumpy until we got up to cruising altitude, but Olivia did great. She sucked her bottle right down and showed no signs of discomfort. For the duration of the flight, she played with her two favorite (at the moment) toys- a panda figurine and a squishy bunny named Cottontail. We read one or two books, but mostly passed the time by snacking - animal crackers, pretzels, Delta cookies, string cheese, Goldfish - to name a few. She did totally great. A nice bonus was that the flight wasn't fully booked so we had an empty seat in our block of three. We used the middle seat as a little play-space and Pie enjoyed using her tray as a launching pad for her toys. She fell asleep in my arms for the last 40 minutes of the flight. Because of the delay, we felt like we needed to hustle once off the plane to catch our connecting flight. We booked it through the Atlanta airport, only to find that flight was delayed as well. Maintenance... My mom and I got dinner and tried to interest O in food, but she wasn't having it. I think she was super tired. Unfortunately, she was up and hour and a half earlier than normal that morning and took less than half of her regular nap time. It seemed she was starting to melt. Upon boarding, we were told the carry on that housed all of Pie's treats and comfort items was too large to take on the plane. What?!?! The guy said it was because this plane was a smaller one and it wouldn't fit. I had about 30 seconds to grab anything I felt was vital to a smooth flight and could fit in the diaper bag. Not fun. We once again made a hot water/formula bottle for take-off and once again, Pie was a champ. However, she wasn't interested in sleeping. We tried to feed her some snacks, but she didn't want anything. She played quietly with us and with the two little kids sitting in front of us. When we landed, it was coming up on her bedtime. My grandparents met us at the airport and after collecting our 19 (almost) bags, we made the 20 minute trip to their house. Olivia, amazingly, was cheerful and quiet the whole way - charming, even. While I would have liked to bathe her, food and sleep won out over cleanliness. My mom made a scrambled egg (an Olivia staple) while I PJ'd Olivia, but when I offered it to her, she totally melted. Like completely and utterly fell apart. Instead of fighting her, I whisked her off to bed (a pack 'n play that fit almost totally in the closet in my room). She fell asleep right away. That SHOULD have been the end of Wednesday's festivities, BUT... shortly after I went to bed at nine, Olivia woke up crying. I rubbed her back and hushed her back to sleep. Around ten, she woke again. When I picked her up, found she was BURNING up. I got my mom and after feeling her, she confirmed a fever. Brilliantly, I had not packed the Children's Tylenol (yes, I looked at it and considered it, but my kid doesn't get sick...hmmm.) My mom called Jan in MN and they decided we could crush up a bit of regular Tylenol and give her that. I called Evan in MN and told him what was up. I gave Olivia some water and crushed up pill in baby food fruit. After laying in bed with me for a while, I deposited her back in her crib. The next several hours were not fun - she was awake approximately every 20 or 30 minutes. Around three a.m. she woke up crying again and my mom came in. She got a thermometer by digging around in my grandparents' bathroom (yep, didn't pack that either) and found that her temp was near 103. At that point, we knew we needed some children's meds. I called (and woke) Evan back at home so he could check for a 24-hour drug store near us and at 3:30 I left the house, a sad and very hot Olivia being held by my mom. I made a bottle and added the dosage to it and Pie sucked the whole thing down. I made another 8-ounce bottle and she took almost the whole rest of that. She soaked three diapers that night - which we were glad for. At four, my mom told me to try to sleep while she rocked Olivia. It seemed she may have cooled a bit, and was sleeping soundly in her arms. I slept for a bit and then at five, encouraged my mom to put O back in her bed and get some rest herself. Olivia and I both slept until 7:15 when she woke crying again. She felt warm again and I put her in my bed. She started dozing almost immediately so I transferred her back to her bed. She didn't wake again until almost 9:30.