TT Bad Trip

This week's theme is Disaster Vacation. 

Problem. We haven't planned or gone on a vacation since Animal has been born. The vacations the Hubby and I have had, have been lovely with few bumps in the road. 

Check out what kinds of mayhem other bloggers have encountered on their less than perfect getaways by clicking the link below: 

Just kidding...

I did have a few less than ideal vacations, before baby I could write about... but instead I've decided to take a little carte blanche with this theme, and go from worst vacation disaster, to worst trip disaster. Also I'm going to take a little liberty with the word trip to include anytime I've left the house with Animal.

My worst disaster happened the day after I brought my son home from the hospital. He was 3 days old and I was not only recovering from the most amazing/painful event of my life but I was running on fumes.

While I was having some soup my mom had made me, my phone rang. 

It was the pediatrician's office calling. They said we had to come in NOW. I was too tiered to understand the urgency apparently because I asked what time we should be there and she said, "right now." I told my mom and we packed the baby up in his car seat and headed out the door.

When we got there it was about 3ish, they took us to the baby waiting room and told me to strip my son so that he could be weighed. I had him in his tiny newborn diaper when the nurse came in and she told me to remove that as well. I then realized that, on this our first trip out of our home, I had not brought a diaper bag. I had no diapers, or wipes. No extra clothes. And because he was naked, he was now cold and had wet his one and only diaper. I told the nurse what had happened and she thought I was a complete moron went to see if they had any samples I could have.

While she was gone. My mom was like WTF? Really you forgot the diaper bag? 

I was super lame and mumbled something about never having had a baby before and being too sleepy to remember. She was sympathetic and said I'm sorry I thought you had stuff in the car. YOU ALWAYS KEEP EXTRA DIAPERS IN THE CAR. Well thanks mom, that would have been great advice before we drove anywhere.

So the nurse comes back with a gigantic diaper for a five year old or something. We weigh the baby. He's an even 6 lbs now. I can't believe how tiny my son is.

They take us to an examination room to wait for the doctor. Animal is wrapped in a receiving blanket because We've been asked to keep him naked for the doctor. He pees in his blanket and on my moms lap. I don't have another receiving blanket on me so my mom wraps him in her hoodie. 

We see the doctors P.A., she explains that they have received the culture they took of one of his eyes and he needs an antibiotic ointment. We have to pick up it now and we also have to get lab work done, right now (it's Friday afternoon so no labs will be open the following day). 

The baby poops on my moms leg. Grandma is loving me right now. She happens to live super close and we have a lot of baby supplies at her house so we stop there before heading to the hospital lab where they have sent us. Which BTW 3 minutes from my moms house. 

We can't find parking and when we do the lab door is locked. 5 minutes early. I call the doctors office, they call the lab. We can see the lab person on the phone with my doctors office. They refuse to see us. My doctors office sends us to another lab up the street. It's not covered by our insurance, but the doctors office says don't worry we'll have a confirmation number faxed to them before you get there, it's an emergency.

Up until this point, no one had used those words. And at that moment my heart sank and I was filled with this urgency I had never in my life felt.

We get to lab. And they draw 4 tubes of blood. 4 tubes from my tiny six pound baby. I cry like a baby. My son is super baby and only let's out one loud cry. My heart is shattering.

We go to pharmacy to pick up prescription. I drop my mom off. The hubby is home from work and waiting for us and I tell him everything. 

As we sit and try to eat dinner, our son sleeping in his car seat. My phone rings again, it's his doctor. The lab wont have the results fast enough she says. She tells me to drop everything and take my baby to NICU where Dr. So and So will be waiting for us.

We feel like we've been punched in the stomach. All the air sucked out of us.

We get to the NICU where the doctor asks us a lot of questions and tells us the blood work will all be repeated, and their lab will have results by the next morning. They want to make sure he doesn't have a blood infection that could lead to meningitis. It so hard to listen. I catch that he thinks the baby is fine and he sees no reason we wont go home tomorrow. I'm an optimistic kind of person. My husband is a pessimist. He hears that his son could die of meningitis. 

We ask if we can spend the night because I'm breastfeeding. He says yes. We stay in a room in that wing. I read and sign A LOT of paperwork. I'm so grateful for it. I can't think. I pray, I cry, I try to sleep. I feed my son every few hours. Sometime in the wee hours of the mourning just as the nurse was finishing her shift, she tells me the results are back. They are negative. She says "I think you'll go home later. That was the worst case scenario."

Sometime I may write all about this night. 

But for today, I'll fast forward to the morning. When the sucky nurse told me "The doctor will get to your baby when she can. There are some really sick babies here."

 What a bitch! I understood, but what was my baby doing there if he wasn't sick? I started to cry and said,"I understand it's just I don't actually know my son is ok, the doctor hasn't talked to me yet and last night the doctor said he didn't see why my son wouldn't be released today. And I just want to know if my son really is ok and I can take him home" She probably realized she was being pretty insensitive because I got to see the doctor within the hour. 

They diagnosed my son with a blocked tear duct, and we were home by 2ish that afternoon. It was the worst trip ever! I hope it remains this way. 

To hear some vacation nightmares click HERE