Wednesday, June 27, 2012

What a trip....

So, we have made it to Washington and are attempting to get over jet lag. This is the part that I hate about traveling and when you are in the midst of cranky kids and irregular sleep patterns and 4:00 AM wake up calls....you wish you were still home with your routines, toys and beds. But...this will pass, hopefully soon, and we will be able to hopefully enjoy family time and the beauty of the Pacific Northwest!


Our flight home was probably the most intense flight experience I have had ever with kids! We got to the airport in Bahrain fine, made it through security with my crazy amount of stuff....I had a stroller, a rolling bag with a car seat attached to it, a diaper bag and Peyton's back pack. We then went towards the gate and let Graham run around while Peyton slept in the stroller and then made it through a second security check at the gate and then I woke up Peyton so she could walk onto the plane and off we went.


We were the first ones on, got settled, the car seat strapped in and Peyton back asleep. Graham was fine, talking, playing and being great. The plane however was HOT! There was little to no air flowing and it was hot. I didn't think anything of it but after a little bit noticed that I was feeling sick but knew we would be leaving soon and it would hopefully cool off. Then about 10 minutes before we were going to pull away from the gate....Graham started vomiting....constantly.....everywhere. After my initial shock, I grabbed an airplane blanket but the damage had already been done and it was all over here and all over his seat. I paged the flight attendants and they brought me some towels, wet rags, a powder to pour on the seat and soak up liquid, antibacterial spray for the seat and my hands and were really helpful. I went and got Graham dressed in new clothes and put a blanket under him since his seat was dirty and prayed that would be the end of it. I started fanning him with a magazine and we took off. He fell asleep and I prayed that was the end of it. When he woke up, it had been about 2 hours and I figured it was a one time thing so I let him have some water....immediately he started vomiting again. Again, he fell asleep but woke up about 30 minutes later vomiting. He fell asleep again and woke up 2 hours later and was asking for a drink and food, I gave him some water and a cracker and he was fine at first but about 30-45 minutes....more vomit. At this point it was mostly just water which made it easy to clean and manage but I was getting worried and felt awful for him. I had no idea what to do, what was causing it and had no idea how we would be able to do a 10 hour flight like this. He was such a good boy though and never cried and would get sick, look for a cuddle and then fall asleep. Such a sweet and good baby! We finally landed with I think no more episodes. Peyton slept the entire way and was great. We got off, transferred terminals, inquired what would happen if I decided to skip my next flight and take a later one and then went to clean everyone up. I first went to find some clothes in the airport for him since I only had one pair left and they were for the colder weather in Washington and so I wanted to save them as long as possible. I found some London Olympics shorts and shirt and off we went to get Graham cleaned up, attempt to clean the car seat some more and get settled for our 4-5 hour layover and evaluate what do to about our next flight. Since it had been a little while I decided to give him some baby food from a squeeze pouch I had and see if during the long layover he could keep it down. After eating he went to sleep....which normally I would have discouraged since I need sleeping breaks on the plane but at this point we all needed breaks! He slept the whole layover and kept the food down so we made our way to the gate and flight #2 praying that we could make it through this.....oh....and did I mention that I was sick and getting worse...I had a lovely cough, runny nose, slight fever and felt awful. At least Peyton was doing GREAT and being super helpful, easy going and all around AWESOME!


Our next flight went a whole lot better. Peyton watched movies and napped when she got tired and was  a joy to fly with. Graham wasn't sick at all and napped when he needed to and would play and did fine until the last two hours when he started getting restless and we had to walk around the back and allow him to climb all over me. It was a long two hours but nothing compared to the first flight. When we landed we headed through customs, got our bags and then the moment we were waiting for....seeing my mom and sister. Peyton was SO excited to see them! When we were in line at customs she was asking me how would she know what my mom looked like and she was worried about not recognizing her. As soon as I waved to my mom she took off running in between luggage carts and just was gone until she got into my mom's arms and gave her a big hug a kiss. She then looked my mom over up and down and studied her face. So sweet. 


So thankful to be done with flying for a couple of months and to have two wonderful travelers! I am thankful the trip home went so much better than I anticipated in terms of entertaining Graham. It was not nearly as bad as I was thinking it would be....minus the vomit!


We made it home after stopping for some Tim Horton's and then unpacked, got everyone settled and started the fun process of getting over jet lag....which started with Graham falling asleep at dinner and everyone waking up at 4:00 AM. Hopefully we will be done with it in a couple of days! Thank you for all the prayers for safe travels! They were answered!

1 comment:

Stori said...

I am SO sorry. That sounds miserable. Absolutely miserable.