Trip to NJ

As we had been planning, we decided to head to New Jersey to celebrate Micah's birthday, Chanukah, DH's brother's birthday, and his nephew's birthday with his family. On December 29th, we packed up and took off on our trip. Not surprisingly, traffic was a bit heavy, and we left later than originally planned.

I was driving, but the morning sickness was making the drive challenging for me. Micah was actually wide awake for the first 1 1/2 hours of the trip (we were hoping he would fall asleep quickly and nap for most of the trip). Luckily he was in a good mood, playing with his toys and enjoying the Elmo CD playing in the car.

About 1 hour or so into the trip, Micah started playing his new "game." You see, he thinks it is funny to stick his fingers so far down into his throat that it makes him gag. It is an awful sound (especially for someone like me who already feels nauseated), and I just think it is a terrible thing to do! He sticks his fingers down his throat, he gags, and then he laughs and does it again. I kept telling him no and told him to stop, but that just seemed to make him want to do it more. I tried to ask DH to give him some food or a bottle or another toy to distract him, but no such luck. I actually said to DH that if we didn't get him to stop, he would make himself throw up. No sooner than I said that...yup, you guessed it, Micah puked all over himself. And started laughing. He thought it was hysterical! All I could think about was the smell and wanting to throw up myself.

We pulled over to the side of the road in the middle of nowhere on the highway. DH did the best he could to wipe him down, but we decided in the cold weather and on the side of the road, it was too difficult to change Micah. So...we got back on the road. Micah quickly fell asleep asleep after this, but I kept smelling vomit the entire trip.

Micah woke up near a rest stop about 30 miles from our destination. We decided to pull over, change his diaper and clothing and give him a snack. He was really cooperative and enjoyed his break, but he was very unhappy to be returned to the car. The last part of the trip was awful - Micah was crying and the traffic was terrible.

We finally arrived around 5:30 pm. I was still so sick from the traveling that I immediately threw up. Micah spent some time with his cousins and aunt and uncle while I did my best to recover (and popped another Zofran). We headed out to dinner to celebrate our nephew's birthday at this cute little restaurant, but it was FREEZING cold there! We had these incredible potato chips (made fresh), but I couldn't get Micah to eat the macaroni and cheese or any other food. Micah started to melt down towards the end of dinner, so we headed back to the house and quickly put him down to sleep. He was not thrilled to be sleeping in a new environment, unfortunately, so it took him a while to fall asleep - he needed Mommy to stay in the room and hold his hand for a while.

DH and I stayed awake until about 2:45 talking to our nieces and nephews. We finally went up to bed, got settled in, and I even got into bed without waking Micah who was sound asleep in the pack 'n play next to the bed. Until DH made a ton of noise in the hallway and woke him up!! Micah was crying and would not stop, so I had to pull him into bed with us. Naturally, DH passed out a few minutes later, and I was awake for the next 1 1/2 hrs with a very perky Micah who wanted nothing more than to cuddle with Mommy and bounce on the bed. Finally, Micah fell asleep around 4:30. I woke DH up to help me move Micah back to the pack 'n play so I could get some sleep.

Around 6:00 am, the room started to get very hot. By 7:00, it was almost unbearable, and Micah woke up crying. I knew we were in for a long day!! We opened up the door to the bedroom and got Micah's bottle. He drank his milk and fell asleep again for another hour. By 9:00, I took him downstairs and gave him breakfast. I think he threw most of it on the floor, but he was having fun. After breakfast, he kept using the chair as a "walker" and he made circles around the first floor. We managed to get him down for a nap, and he woke up in time for the family to start arriving.

Micah's other aunt, uncle and cousin arrived first. The kids all played together while we waited for their grandparents to arrive. We also learned that Micah is quite musical - he was enjoying playing the piano with his cousin. He was actually pretty good. I do think he has a musical sense - he loves to bang on things like drums, and in music class, he loves to dance and shake the egg shakers to the music, and he loves both real pianos and his toy piano. Grandma and Grandpa arrived around 1:00, and we had a wonderful lunch of latkes. We exchanged gifts, and then had birthday cake.

Most of the family left by 4:00. We stayed a few hours longer to feed Micah dinner. We put him to sleep in the car around 7:30, and we had an easy ride home (except for my nausea). We stopped to pick up the dog, then went straight back to our house. It was a very nice visit!