barf, airplanes, and more barf. a story about traveling and barf,

last week miles completed his 15th flight. he is 11 months old. that's a whole lotta airplane for a baby. he took his first flight when he was 6 weeks old when we moved to washington. visits back to salt lake, phoenix, and houston have filled in the rest. i literally practice going through the motions of walking through security before every flight. especially if i'm flying alone with him!

the visits and vacations on the other end of the flights are always worth it...but sometimes i have to remind myself of that mid-flight. for the most part, miles has done ok.. we've had few tantrums and scream fests, but they usually don't last too long, and people are pretty understanding.


oh, we also require a lot of stuff when traveling...

in december we went to california, and then in january to salt lake to see the fam. it was so fun to see everyone, and both trips were awesome. (pictures of both posting soon) and while miles did pretty well on all the flights...the final flight home from salt lake ended up being the worst flight of my life.
  THE WORST. EVER.
EVER.

sunday...we were all packed up, ready to return home after spending 2 whole weeks in utah. on the way to the airport, i heard miles make some funny noises. looked back at him in the car seat to discover that he had thrown up (for the fist time in his life) all over. ALL OVER. himself, the car seat, the door ...everything was covered. we pulled off the freeway into a shopko parking lot. brandon made a mad dash inside to get some towels and new clothes, while i started cleaning up the disaster in the back seat. now...if you know me...you know the reaction i have to anything even slightly disgusting. 12 months ago, i would have added to the puddles of puke in back seat. but now...after having a baby...it's like i have super powers that protect me from my own gag reflex. i didn't even cringe. i just cleaned that poor baby up and wiped down that back window like it was nobodies business. i owned that barf.

ok...we were back on the road...chalked it up to some bad baby food. a total fluke. homeward bound....

to make a long story short...the barfing continued once we got the the airport. 2 more times, 2 more airport baby shirts, and one slc airport tee shirt for brandon. then it had been an hour since the last barf episode...and we were boarding. we were going to be fine. he got it all out of his system..right??

wrong. so wrong.

as we were literally getting on the plane, in the jet way...splash! puke again. at this point we knew something was really wrong. too wrong to get on a plane for 2 hours. so...we sent brandon ahead (in case they couldn't get him on a later flight and he couldn't miss work the next day) and i stayed behind with miles and got booked on a flight 3 hours later. i thought i would wait and see if he was done throwing up, and we had 3 hours to get him settled.

sadly...he was not. after half a bottle and a 20 minute nap on my lap, he woke up, facing me with his big brown eyes, gave me a half smile, and then BOOM. like a fire hose. barf all over me. from my neck to my knees. running down my legs, into the diaper bag, all over my phone. barf. (still...like a rock. no gagging!!)

i didn't even know what to do. i just sat there. miles was so tired, he just closed his eyes and laid back down against my barf covered chest and fell asleep instantly. luckily i was able to motion the the desk attendant at the delta counter that i needed to cancel my flight till the next day. delta was awesome. they re booked my flight again, offered to get me medical assistance, and they even found me a car seat. *my car seat, stroller, and bags were already half way to seattle.

grandpa brent came to the rescue and we went straight to primary children's hospital. by the time we arrived, miles was wearing only a size 4T salt lake city airport tee shirt, a diaper, and socks. nothing else survived. i think i threw away 3 complete outfits. i also had to buy an airport shirt. i think the airport gift shops made a pretty good chunk of change off us that day.

anyway...they got him hydrated, and settled his tummy. after a few hours, a nice warm bath and some loving from grandma janny, he was fast asleep and seemed much better. the next day he acted like nothing happened. his appetite was back in full force, he was laughing, playing and crawling. (still in his big shirt and socks because we had to conserve our only outfit remaining to get home in)

monday night...we made our way back to the airport we could get on our 8:00 pm flight. miles was all better, all my clothes had been washed, our ducks were in a row and we were going home! i had no stroller, 2 carry ons and a 23 lb baby...so a walk through the airport was a pretty good work out. by the time we got to the gate, i was feeling a little dizzy. i thought it was just from lugging all my shiz.

finally!! time to board!! going home! yay!

wrong. so wrong.

when it was our turn to board, i stood up and started to the jet way. out of nowhere this feeling hit me like a truck. a truck full of barf.

"i'm sick. i'm gonna... i'm gonna...no!! no i am fine...no...i'm sick. i'm gonna...."

i ran into the bathroom, stuck miles on the floor and barley made it to the toilet in time. barf.

" how can this be? how can i be sick so suddenly right when i am getting on a plane with a baby, alone. no way."

i was hoping i was done. i had to get on this plane. i just had to get home. i thought i could mentally block it out, and make it at least until we landed in seattle to throw up again. but sure enough, 20 minutes into the flight, i had to ask the lady sitting next to me to hold miles while i threw up in  the airplane bathroom. 20 minutes after that, i had to ask the guy sitting across from me to hold him because the girl next to me was asleep. all together, i had to throw up 4 times on the plane, and that was when i felt good. you always feel better after you puke, its the 20-30 minutes in between (when i was holding and trying to contain an 11 month old baby) that you feel the worst. i just kept telling myself it would be over eventually. the plane would land.

 i said lots of prayers. prayed that miles would sleep, and then stay asleep when i had to hand him off to whoever would take him while i puked, prayed that there wouldn't be too much turbulence since that was making it increasingly worse, and i prayed that i wouldn't start crying. i just needed to hold it together till we landed! crying would just make it so much worse.

thankfully those 3 prayers were answered. miles stayed asleep most of the flight, the flight was not too rough, and i didn't cry. until we landed and i ran with my baby and my bags to the bathroom, put everything on the floor, including myself and started bawling. really, it is one of the worst sicknesses i have ever felt. and being on a plane, with a baby made it seem 20 million times worse. i cried and cried. somewhat because i felt so sick, and somewhat because i was just so thankful to be off the plane.

i am truly so thankful to delta for how accommodating they were, and to the nice staff on the plane that kept checking on me and bringing me ice, and to the kind passengers that held my boy when i was not able to. there are good people in the world.

turns out, whatever bug is going around is pretty nasty and extremely contagious. brandon, and my whole family in salt lake ended up getting it too. we are all pretty waisted this week.

after that flight, any other flight will seem like cake. ehhhh...cake. blahhh. don't talk about cake.