What a Trip!

My dad’s side of the family planned a mini-reunion this past weekend in Austin, TX for everyone to get together and spend some quality time with my grandmother.  I was so excited about an opportunity to see family who I have not seen in over a year or more.  Unfortunately Son had to work that weekend and wasn’t able to make the trip with us, but my sister’s husband, Warren, wasn’t able to go either so we met up in Dallas and rode to Austin together.

The flight to Dallas was really full, and I was a little nervous when this huge guy sat down next to us (Collin has a little issue with understanding the difference between “stranger” and “best friend”).  I really think all the guy wanted to do when he sat down was listen to his iPod & sleep…little did he know that he picked the WRONG seat for that!  Probably about 5 minutes after take-off Collin starts touching the guys arm, then he notices that the guy is wearing a t-shirt with a baseball on it and starts saying, “ball ball ball” while trying to poke this poor guy in the chest.  Next, Collin notices the guy’s watch and starts touching it saying “watch, watch, watch”.

At this point I was so embarrassed and tired of trying to convince Collin to leave this guy alone.  Fortunately I guess the guy realized that there would be a lot less crying if he just played along, so he started talking to Collin.  Normally I don’t encourage Collin to have conversations with strange men that we just met, but in this case my choice was either screaming baby on a plane or just go with it.

I won’t give you a play-by-play of the entire 3 hour flight, but let’s just say that the guy ended up being really nice and the flight ended with Collin in the guy’s lap laughing and playing during landing.  He even fussed when the guy had to give him back to me…seriously??

The drive to Austin Saturday morning was great, except for a pit stop to change a diaper at a McDonalds that had no changing table!!  How can you not have a changing table in the entire restaurant?

We made it to my Aunt’s house in time for lunch – Greenburg Turkey!!  My favorite!  We pretty much spent all day over at her house & Collin had a blast playing with his cousin Shay.  That night I even got some Taco Cabana for dinner – yummy!

For some reason I totally forgot to pull out my camera until later that night at the hotel during bath time.  My parents got us a really nice suite with 2 bedrooms & a kitchen so that we could stay together and have everything I needed for Collin.

 

My mom & I giving Collin his bath – and yes, even though it was a really nice place my mom bleached and cleaned out the tub before we put him in.

He thought it was hilarious that we let him play with the plastic serving spoons from the kitchen & had a great time splashing us!

Playing peek-a-boo with “De-De” from the crib – and yes, my mom brought this pack-n-play from home…no nasty hotel germs for our baby!

Giving “Jimbo” aka “Mo-Mo” big hugs & kisses before we had to leave.

I was supposed to be able to meet up with my friend Emily to visit before we headed back to Dallas, but Collin had been up all night with a cough and just wasn’t feeling like himself.  I was so upset but I ended up cancelling because I just knew that he wasn’t feeling well & I wanted to get back to Dallas asap in case he got worse.

Well, he did get worse.  When we got back to my sister’s house he was breathing really heavy, using his chest muscles a lot, and wheezing.  I still wasn’t too worried because he had bronchilitis (sp?) a few months ago and the Dr. had prescribed him an oral Albuterol (sp?) to help with the wheezing – which we actually never used because he got better so quickly. 

Anyways, I decided to call my pediatrician and they recommended we take him to an urgent care clinic just to get looked at.  I still wasn’t really too concerned until we met with the Dr. who advised us to take him to the nearest Children’s Medical Center ER in Frisco.  Then I panicked…

We get to the ER, and the triage nurse checks him out and basically tells us that he is fine and that we should have just taken him to a children’s acute care clinic (who even knew those existed??).  I was feeling much better until we get back to a room in the ER and they start hooking him up to all the monitors, taking a chest x-ray, nose suction, 2 breathing treatments that were over an hour each, and IV fluids…panicking again here!

 

When we first arrived in the ER – trying to distract him with all the toys they had.

After several hours, when his fever spiked they took off most of his clothes to try to cool him off.  I am so thankful that my AMAZING sister was there with me the entire time – there is no way that I could have ever done this without her.

Basically after all of that the doctor told us that he had a virus (broncholitis) that triggered the inflammation in his lungs so that his lung capacity was diminished, his oxygen levels were too low, and his pulse rate & his respiratory rate were too high.  The breathing treatments had helped during the treatment itself, but the effects were not lasting very long after the treatments ended.

They decided to admit us to the hospital to give him more time on the fluids, and because they were concerned that it may get worse during the night.  We got checked into our room, Warren brought me & Becca some dinner, and I think Collin watched the Disney movie Cars about 3 times before he crashed.  I know he wasn’t feeling well just because of the fact that he laid in my arms and watched the movie over and over again – this is the same boy who can’t even sit still for 5 minutes of his favorite Elmo video :)

Collin ended up doing great overnight, although it was difficult for him to sleep with the nurses coming in to check on him every hour.

Mommy & baby the next morning – no sleep & no shower does not make for a very pretty picture!  That morning before Becca & my Mom got there Collin woke up saying, “Becca Car!” “Becca Car!”  I think he was trying to tell me to call Becca and have her get in her car to come and pick us up. 

My mom got up super early & drove from Tyler to the hospital.  Fortunately she was there soon after Collin woke up and was able to help…I was finally able to go to the bathroom, brush my teeth, and she picked up some great stuff in the gift shop for him to play with.

By about lunch time Collin was feeling much better & was ready to GO!  But he wasn’t a big fan of the hospital food and the Dr. said he had to be eating and drinking well before we could go home…so Aunt Becca came to the rescue with a Chick-fil-a meal that he quickly ate all of!!

After he ate, drank, and they were able to take him off the IV fluids  it was really difficult to keep him entertained in the hospital room.  He kept running over to the door saying “Walk, walk, walk”…I think another hint that he was ready to leave :)

Once they finally released us we got out of there as fast as we could!!  By that point we had missed our Monday morning flight back home, and the Dr. told us he couldn’t fly until Wednesday.  I was really missing Son, and was dying to get home, but I just tried to make the most of the situation and really enjoyed the extra time with my mom, Becca & Warren.

Collin LOVES Becca & Warren’s dog, Addie.  One of his favorite things to say is “Addie, stay!”  It is so cute & he says it so clearly too.

So we finally made it back home on Wednesday afternoon, and that’s the end of our story!!

Oh yeah, in other Vuong Family news, something happened between the time that I left for Texas and came back because the clothes that I packed fit me at the beginning of the trip, but by the end I was having a hard time trying to find something to wear home…I guess it could have been the Greenburg Turkey, Taco Cabana, or Pei Wei, but I prefer to think that I have “popped”…hehe!  Collin & I are still on play-date restriction just to make sure we don’t get anyone else sick, but I am anxious to see if any of my friends can tell!  Right now if you didn’t know me then I just look fat, but if you do know what I used to look like then I think you can probably tell :)  I promise pictures soon!