48-hour week

Well, I'm back in Thornton from Pueblo.  That "week" visit turned out to be only 48 hours!  Here's where things went wrong...

Last week Joe came home with a cold, a "man cold" where he needed a 2-pack of NyQuil and plenty of extra rest. He seemed pretty much better by the time we left town.  Tuesday morning I packed up the kids (including breaking down and hauling a crib through the house and loading it on top of the car by myself - whew!) and during the 2-hour drive my throat started getting scratchy.  Once we were at Kari's house hanging out, my nose started to run and the scratchiness increased.  Her friend invited us over to dinner for spicy green chili to help induce labor, and by dinner time I had a nasty headache and was completely hoarse - ridiculous how fast everything progressed! 

Wednesday in the wee hours Kari went into labor, and the whole time I was coaching her in this in-and-out, husky voice that was like yelling in a whisper. Poor girl, what an obnoxious voice for a labor coach!  Well, at least it wasn't high-pitched and whiny or something... so from then on all day my voice was gone.  Laryngitis!  I haven't had laryngitis for YEARS, and I get it the day I visit my sister goes into labor and we begin our long visit. 

This morning, very early (much earlier than I would have liked, I was still very tired since I didn't get a real nap in on Wednesday or good sleep that night), Caroline woke up throwing up.  One of those where they have mucous in their throat that they gag on, then they throw up nasty mucous. I thought "that was gross, but she got it out of her system.  We'll see how the morning goes and maybe we can stay..."  I only thought this because Kari and Addilyn are in the hospital a few days, possibly getting released on Friday, giving Caroline time to get over the mucous nastiness.  If they were coming home today the possibility of staying wouldn't have been a possibility!  So an hour went by, Caroline took a bath, got dressed... and mucous puked again. "CRAP," I thought, "now we HAVE to go home." So I got the boys dressed, made breakfast, began picking up the toys around the house, and during this time (another hour or so) Caroline seemed like she'd finally gotten it all clear - no runny nose, no yuckiness, nothing except smiles and good spirits - maybe we could stay!  Still had at least 24 hours before Kari and baby would be back, so we could re-assess leaving tomorrow morning!  Good thoughts until, randomly, she threw up AGAIN.  3 times in 1 morning was a sign straight from heaven that we needed to skedaddle, so I tearfully packed up our car (this is true, I SO did not want to go, which is why I worked so hard deluding myself that maybe we could stay), located all (most of) the sippy cups we brought, and broke down the crib and hauled it upstairs and loaded it on top of the car all by myself again (whew, x2!).  Old-school girl that I am, I have no phone (I am willing to dish out money left and right for scrapbooking supplies, but don't ask me to foot a cell phone bill.  I have my limits), so I had to go to the hospital to inform my sis and BIL (who slept at the hospital that night) that I'd be on my way with my laryngitis cold and my sick kids.  They, not-so-tearfully, wished us goodbye.  Nobody wants sick kiddos around their newer-than-new newborn. Weird.

So by 11:00 we were on the road, Wendy's cheeseburgers in hand, and by 1:00 we were home.  I am SO BUMMED OUT that I didn't even get to hold the little doll... she's so dang cute! And tiny! (Can you tell by all the pictures I've posted?  OH YEAH, I brought my camera but forgot my SD card - the mark from my forehead slap is still visible).  But maybe my mom can do all the holding for me when she gets there in a week.  And she can take all the pictures I was supposed to take, cook the meals I was supposed to cook, clean the house I was supposed to clean, and be generally helpful and good company, like I was supposed to be :(  Go get 'em, mom! Just DON'T GET A COLD.