A Thanksgiving To Remember

Disclaimer:  This post does not have any pictures.  Due to the sequence of events, no pictures were taken.  This post is mainly for our family to remember the craziness of Cale's first Thanksgiving.

We had grand plans to spend Adam's entire Thanksgiving Break traveling to Arkansas and Mississippi to visit family and friends, and were very excited to introduce Cale to extended family members this year!  Logistically, we were jumping through a few hoops, thinking it actually make things go a lot smoother.  Looking forward to the break, we were optimistic and excited to have a school-free five days as a family.  Funny.  New thoughts:  Traveling with an infant is often very unpredictable and almost never goes as it is envisioned.  Also, life happens.

The Sequence of Events:

October 2011

Stacey, Adam's step-sister, invited us to come and spend Thanksgiving at her house in Mississippi, along with the rest of Adam's extended family.  We had never been to Stacey's house and were excited to see everyone, since it had been a few years since we had all been together last.  We quickly started talking about logistics and Adam found out that he would not be released from school until 5:30pm on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.  Since our destination was 8 hours away, we decided it would be best to make a stop mid-way there.  We also opted to not start our trip with Cale being put into the car at 6pm and driving until Midnight, only to get up first thing Thursday morning and continue driving 2.5 more hours.  He doesn't LOVE his car seat and he really doesn't sleep well in his car seat, so the thought of starting our trip out that way did not sound enticing.  We have great family friends who live in Little Rock, Arkansas, and have a little boy who is only nine weeks older than Cale.  I checked with the Carroll's to see if it would be okay to stay with them overnight, and then booked Cale and I a flight into Little Rock.  

November 20th, 2011 (Sunday before Thanksgiving)

We got a phone call from the Carroll's letting us know that they had a family member who had passed away and would be out of town for the funeral until after Thanksgiving.  They insisted that we still stay at there house, but would not be able to pick Cale and I up from the airport.  

November 23rd, 2011 (Wednesday before Thanksgiving)

Luckily, my sister's roommate from college was in town visiting family, and was able to pick us up.  We decided to continue with our plans, and arrived in Little Rock after an hour long flight with a VERY active little boy.  (Up until this age, when we have flown in the past, we coordinated our flights with Cale's nap schedule, so e spent most of the plane rides napping.  Not the case these days.  If there is action going on around him, he feels the need to be apart of it.  Needless to say, there was no napping on this flight!!)  I was exhausted and thankful to see Mal's face when we arrived in Little Rock.  She dropped us off at the Carroll's and I put Cale down for a nap.  All was peaceful that night, and I was feeling pretty good about the trip that lay ahead of us.  Adam arrived at the Carroll's around 12:30am, and we repacked the car so that we could hit the road early in the morning...

November 24th, 2011 (Thanksgiving Day)

Adam and I woke up around 6am and got ready before waking Cale up.  By 7:30am, we were loaded in the car and ready to get on the road....that is, until Adam realized he had left his glasses inside and then realized he had also locked us out of the house.  Lovely.  We tried calling the Carroll's to find a hidden key outside, but couldn't get a hold of anyone.  We decided to go ahead and leave, knowing Adam would be REALLY missing his glasses by the evening.  About 20 minutes down the road, the Carroll's called us back.  They told us where the hidden key was and we turned right back around to get Adam's glasses.  Same scene, take two.  Back on the road and heading towards Mississippi, we were already an hour behind our "planned" schedule.  Oh well, if that's the worst thing that happens....

November 25th, 2011 (Friday after Thanksgiving)

12am - I wake up and head to Target.  Make my purchases and finally leave after standing in the wrong line for two hours.

2:30am - Creep back into the hotel room, only to hear Cale crying.  I crawl into bed and Adam leans over to whisper that he has been fussing on-and-off for the past 45 minutes.  Great.  

3:00am - Cale finally settles down and we all sleep.

7:30am - Cale wakes up and I pick him up.  He is BURNING up.  After waiting 15 minutes for him to cool down (thinking it might have been because he was bundled up), I send Adam to Walgreen's to buy a thermometer.

8:00am - Adam returns with the thermometer and we realize Cale has a 101.5 degree fever.  We call our pediatrician, who tells us to keep him on Tylenol to see if it comes down.

8:30am - We call Adam's family to tell them we are going to lay low at the hotel to see if Cale feels better after his morning nap.  We find out that Adam's mom had been up sick most of the night.  Lovely.

10am - After knowing that we are not going to go over to Stacey's house and expose Cale to whatever illness Adam's mom might have, and after deciding that the thought of being stuck in a hotel room for two days with a sick baby sounds miserable, we decide to pack up and head back to Little Rock....less than 24 hours after we had arrived in Mississippi.  We were so sad to leave so early, since we felt like we had barely spent anytime with the people we had come to visit.

12pm - Head back towards Little Rock.  Realize that Cale's temperature has still not broken, and that it's only getting higher, we decide to make an appointment at an "after-hours" clinic in Little Rock.  I called what seems like every clinic in Little Rock, only to come to the conclusion that the only clinics that are open the day after Thanksgiving are the ones at the hospital.  I hear "cha-ching, cha-ching" in the back of my head, as I make an appointment for Cale at Children's Hospital.  Who knows what our insurance will cover at an out-of-state hospital - oh well.  It was important the have Cale checked out.

3:30pm - Arrive at Children's and get right in to see the doctor.  He looks like Santa Clause, which Cale finds hysterical.  Even though he wasn't feeling well, Cale managed to laugh every time he looked at the doctor, which made us all laugh.  Diagnosed with a virus, we are told to keep Cale on Tylenol and Motrin.  Hopefully things will turn around sooner rather than later.

5pm - Arrive back at the Carroll's (who are now home from traveling).

6pm - Put Cale to bed early, since it has been a long day and he isn't feeling so hot.

9pm - We fall into bed, praying it won't be a rough night for Cale.

October 26th, 2011 (Saturday after Thanksgiving)

7:30am - Cale wakes up, and I am thankful he only woke up one time during the night, and after some Motrin, he went back to bed easily.

9:00am - Put Cale down early for a morning nap and pack up.

10:20am - Cale and I leave for the airport (we had originally planned to leave the following Monday, after staying to spend time with the Carroll's, but when Cale got sick, we bagged that plan.  I called Southwest to see if there were any flights available on Saturday, in which I could use the pass I planned to use on Monday.  I got the last "pass" seat on the plane.  Thank You, Jesus.  I know he was completely providing for us in the midst of the chaos.)

11:30am - Finally get through security after being thoroughly scanned and having Cale's bottles and sippy-cup checked and re-checked.  I thought we'd never make it through security.  I looked at the monitor to see which gate to head to, and notice a the word "boarding" next to my flight number.  Since my plane was leaving from the very last gate at the airport, I decided that I was going to have to sprint if I was going to make it.  Imagine:  Me, sprinting through the airport with a sick baby, a car seat on rollers, and a over-sized diaper bag.  Trucking it....and it's a good thing I did.  I was the last person to board, and walked all the way to the back of the plane, only to realize that there were only middle seats available.  Really?!?!  A sweet girl scooted over to let me have the aisle seat - I think she felt sorry for me and Cale - we did look pretty pitiful by the time we made it on the plane.

1:15pm - We made it back to Dallas, and I was exhausted.  

I mean, flat-on-my-face E.X.H.A.U.S.T.E.D.

4:30pm - Adam gets home, and we both just look at each other, not believing what we had just done.  Four Days.  Three States.  Two Flights.  Eighteen Hours in the Car.  One Hospital Visit.  One Hotel.  Three Very Tired People.

Happy Thanksgiving, Cale.  We hope that the eventfulness of this holiday will not continue in the years to come, but I am holding it lightly.  Isn't it ironic - the title of my blog is "A Woman With a Plan", I should add to that title, "Who Is Learning To Hold the Plan VERY Loosely!"