Virginia! (July 26)

After that terrible flight, it was all uphill once we got to Virginia.  My mom picked us up from the airport, we got in the car, and Matthew was asleep within minutes of getting strapped into his car seat.  We got back to the house, and immediately went downstairs to where we were sleeping and slept for 6 hours.  It was just what we needed.

When we woke up, Matthew was very confused with where we were and did not want me to leave him.  We went upstairs to play with some new toys, which he had a lot of fun with.

Joe and Crystal got there a little bit later, and we surprised my mom with her surprise birthday party that we had planned to throw her on Sunday.  She wasn't very thrilled with the idea, but she warmed up to it.  Then it became apparent that Joe and Crystal and their kids needed to get church clothes.  They had not been planning on going to church because they were going to get ready for the party, but my mom really wanted us all to go to church with her.  So it was off to the mall we went. 

We stopped at Baby Gap and found this really cute hat for Matthew.  I couldn't believe he actually would keep it on his head!

It is such a cute little hat.  I sent a picture of it to Connor, but he wasn't a big fan.  Oh, well.  We all thought it was adorable.

Later at the house we discovered that Matthew loves popsicles.  They are mini ones and perfectly Matthew sized.

Apparently Matthew required a wardrobe change at some point in the day.

All in all, we had a good day.  It would have been a little better if Matthew hadn't still been sick, but that's alright.

The Flight

Months ago, when I was booking the flight that Matthew and I would take to go to Virginia for my mom's 60th birthday, I was trying to decide which airline to go on.  Naturally, I wanted to go on JetBlue (it is the best one, after all!), and I thought to myself "I'll take the red eye flight, and Matthew will sleep the entire time, and it will be great!"

Well, on July 25th, Matthew and I took said flight to Virginia.  First of all, let me just say that we were originally going to fly out on the 24th, but there was a schedule change with the flight time and I was able to change the flight to the 25th, which ended up being perfect because there is no way I would have flown with such a sick baby on the 24th.  Matthew was still sick on the 25th, but not nearly as bad.

Our flight went from Salt Lake to Long Beach, and then we connected to Dulles.  The flight from Salt Lake to Long Beach was amazing.  Matthew fell asleep while we took off, and slept for about an hour. He was up for the last 30 minutes of the flight, and was a little fussy, but it was manageable because it was only 30 minutes.

Our layover in Long Beach was okay.  Originally it was going to be only about 90 minutes, but because of the schedule change, it was 2 1/2 hours.  It went alright.  Matthew was able to crawl around and get some energy out.  Our flight was scheduled to take off around 10, and at about 9:15 Matthew got really fussy because he was
exhausted.  I gave him some more medicine (he still had a fever, plus I didn't want his ears to bug him on the plane...hopefully), and I fed him, but he was still fussy.  I overheard someone behind me say "I really hope that fussy baby isn't on my flight!"  Nice.

I waited as long as possible to get on the plane, because I didn't want to be on there with Matthew any longer than I had to.  When we got on, we had the window seat, the middle seat was open, and a very nice lady was sitting in the aisle seat.  Once we started to taxi, Matthew fell asleep.  It was amazing!

Then, about an hour later, he woke up.  Screaming.  And he proceeded to scream for about 45 minutes.  It was awful.  I don't know if it was his ears, or he just wasn't feeling good still, or what.  But he screamed and screamed.  About 40 minutes into it, the flight attendant came and offered if I wanted to stand up front and try and bounce him.  She was very nice about it, and was just giving me an option.  I said thanks, but I was really thinking that the idea of standing in front of a plane full of people staring at me while I try to console a screaming baby sounded awful.  I chose to stay in my seat.  The nice lady in the aisle offered to take him if I thought it would help, but I told her I thought he would just scream more.

Luckily, (miraculously) about 5 minutes later he calmed down and went to sleep.  But that only lasted for about 45 minutes when he woke up and screamed again for about 5 minutes.  This went on and off for the rest of the flight (all 5 hours of it).  It was awful.  No one said anything negative to me, but there was a woman in the same row on the other side of the aisle who kept looking over in my direction and sighing each time he would start to cry.

The last hour and a half went the best because by that point he was exhausted, but whenever someone would slam the bathroom door or something he would jump up and I would cringe and pray that he wouldn't wake up again.

Finally, the plane landed.  I apologized to the row in front and behind me.  The whole row behind me, and the nice lady sitting next to us was so nice to me.  They said they could tell I was struggling, and offered me help in getting off the plane.  That was the silver lining.  They were so kind, and made me feel better about the last 5 hours of hell.

Regardless, I will NEVER take a red eye flight again with a baby, or any kids for that matter.  It was terrible.  I love JetBlue, but I can't put myself through that again.

Lesson learned.

Sick Little Boy

On July 24th, Matthew woke up with a pretty high fever.  Normally I wouldn't worry so much, but on the 25th Matthew and I were supposed to fly to Virginia.  So, as a precaution, we decided to go get it checked at the doctors.

He had a mild ear infection, so the doctor prescribed some antibiotics.  Honestly, I don't know that he needed them, and if I hadn't been about to fly with a 9 month old on a plane across the country I would have waited it out longer.

Anyway, as the day went on, Matthew just got sadder and sadder.  His fever would go down around 101, and then it would go back up to 103.  I had to alternate Motrin and Tylenol every few hours, and that would still only keep it down around the 100 to 101 range.  Poor kid.

I gave him a lukewarm bath to help.  He seemed to really enjoy that.

And then we woke up in the middle of the night, and I didn't even need to take his temperature because I could tell he was burning up.  I quickly gave him some medicine, then I took his temperature, which was above 103.  He was so sad and pathetic looking.

I put the cool rag on his head.  I thought he would try to pull it off, but it must have felt really good to him.  I rocked him back to sleep, and then cuddled with him the rest of the night so that we could both get some sleep.

He got a lot better, but his fever didn't really subside until after we got to Virginia.  I think it was a combination of a virus and teething.  I checked his upper gums one day and didn't see any teeth at all.  Then two days later I checked again and I could see the outline of 4 teeth.  Poor little boy.  Getting 4 teeth at once is no fun at all.

Provo

On July 18th we headed down to Provo.  I had to get two cavities filled (boo) and Connor had to get a permanent filling after his root canal in June. (Did I blog about that?  I can't remember.)

Going to Provo is always a bit of an adventure.  Well, going anywhere with a baby is always a bit of an adventure.  :)  Anyway, we got to the dentist and I was first up.  Lucky me.  Connor and Matthew went on a walk, and Matthew fell asleep.  I asked for the nitrous oxide, so I was feeling good in no time.

I'm totally numb in that picture, but you can't really tell.  Anyway, all of my stuff took about an hour, and was unpleasant, but I survived.  Connor was up next so I sat out in the hall with Matthew while he slept.  Connor took about 5 minutes, and we were out the door. 

Afterwards we made a stop at the cemetery.

Then on the way home we stopped at Culver's, which I'm sure would have tasted much better if I hadn't been so numb.  

Cherry Hill

On July 9th, Connor, Matthew and I went to Cherry Hill.  If you go after 6:30 pm it's only $5 a person, and since Matthew is free, it's actually a pretty good deal!  So we went and had a couple of hours of fun.

Connor had never been to Cherry Hill before.  Matthew really seemed to like it.  He loved the lazy river.  He didn't like the kids splash pad area too much, but it was a little cold and he doesn't like it when water gets in his face.

We had to take a little break for some snacks about halfway through, but we all had a really good time. It's so fun to go and do things with our little family.

Lagoon

(Sorry, these are out of order)

On July 8th, Joe, Crystal, and their kids came to visit so we all got together decided to go to Lagoon.  We hadn't been there since before I was pregnant with Matthew (not that there's been many changes at Lagoon since then).

Matthew woke up late that day, and he is  my alarm clock so of course we got there late.  Everyone was waiting for us to get there so we could take a picture of all the grandkids for my mom's birthday (more on that later).  I don't think they had to wait for us too long.  The picture turned out really cute.

We all had a really fun day.  Matthew still doesn't really care about the rides, although we did go on a few.  He was a little apprehensive.  I'm sure he'll like them more next year.

After Lagoon, we went and had dinner at Texas Road House, which was yummy as always.

Crawling

On July 17, Matthew started to crawl!  Here's the first time I caught it on video.  Please ignore how ridiculous I sound.  :)