Throw-up Central

Yes, this is what I have officially renamed Casa de Phillips. Today started off like any other Wednesday: morning bottle, sing-a-long time (we have recently added a rendition of O Holy Night that is a bit unfortunate and nothing like Josh Grobins), tummy time, Leap Frog Seat, nap, mid-morning bottle, and then walk. The walk part is where the trouble began. Due to the wonderful cold snap that fell on us last night, Isaac and I headed to our local mall to partake in some mall-walking (there will be a post about the do's and don't's of mall-walking soon). We were strolling right along with Isaac happily chewing on his dinosaur and me attempting to avoid the survey people that lurk near Ann Taylor. Things went downhill quickly when the lady from Kiddie Kandids stopped me to ask if they could take pictures of my child for their store. For our time, we would be give a free 8x10. If I was an unsuspecting parent, proud of her little bundle of joy, I might have jumped at this opportunity. My child, a model for your store?? How marvelous. What this lady did not know was that on our previous lap by Kiddie Kandids I saw her approach another mom and baby and offer the same thing. If I hadn't already been geared up to tell her "no" when she approached, I would have been more than ready to decline when she called Isaac a girl. Yes, he was wearing a sage green outfit today. Sage and yellow are unisex baby colors. However, she should have noticed that he was chewing on his DINOSAUR toy and had a BLUE burp cloth laying in his lap. I sweetly declined and Isaac went from happy baby to fussy baby instantly. I thought at the time is was likely due to sleepiness and the fact someone had called him a girl.

We continued trekking through the mall, attempting to work off those baby pounds. I was only going to let myself make a quick pitstop at The Children's Place to pick-up a red shirt to go with Isaac's Christmas overalls (yes, I finally found some and Isaac will not be wearing a suit this year). While in The Children's Place, I heard a very horrid sound come from the stroller. I lifted up the sunshade to reveal my little boy covered in vomit. There was no mistaking this for some spit-up. Sweet Isaac had thrown up all over himself, his carrier, his blanket, and his burp cloth. Fortunately, the dinosaur was spared. I quickly cleaned him up best I could in the middle of the mall and hurried towards the car. (Fortunately throw-up doesn't effect me at all, after the time that a street child from Kenya threw-up in my face. Of course he was riding backwards in a car, which happened to be his very first time to ride in an automobile. My former students will tell you that I am not afraid of any tummy rumblings. They knew if they wanted to see the nurse because they had been sick in the bathroom, they had to show it to me and it had to be of substantial amount. Usually if a student said he/she needed to throw-up, I handed them the trash can and told them to continue working. If you know what I used to teach, this doesn't sound so cruel. However the trash can thing did backfire on me once when a student threw-up all over a nicely decorated bulletin board.) As I rushed past lazy window shoppers (and once again wondered, "Do these people not work?") I heard what I now refer to as "The Noise" again. I looked down and Isaac had thrown up once more. We made it to the car, drove home, and as soon as I got him out of his carseat he threw-up all over me. I put a call into the doctor and put Isaac into the bath. As I waited for the nurse to call me back, Isaac continued to throw-up and have the dry heaves. I called the doctor's office back and this time was directly connected to the nurse (it is amazing what the words "repeated vomiting and listlessness" can do). I was expecting her to tell us to come right in to see our wonderful pediatrician. Nope. She said we had to go to Urgent Care because Isaac would likely need an IV!

If you happened to be driving down Highway 26 today, you probably saw me. I was the one weaving in and out of lanes, cursing at fellow drivers, and running red lights. Isaac continued to throw-up all the way there and just had this glassy expression on his face. As I rushed him into the Urgent Care, I had visions of ER episodes where swarms of professionals hovered over my child. The lady at the desk who took my insurance card did not seem too concerned about the listlessness and no one rushed through the double-doors to wisk Isaac away. This lack of panic on their part made me calm down somewhat. Tobe showed up from work and we finally got to go to an exam room. Isaac managed to throw-up while the doctor was examining him, so she decided that he needed a sonogram of his abdomen and an x-ray. She then went on to explain how these kind of symptoms could be indicative of an obstructed bowel or of his appendix being on the wrong side, and if either of those were the case we would have to go to Cook Childrens immediately. What??? On my frantic drive to Urgent Care I had not once imagined a misplaced appendix. I had envisioned severe dehydration and IV trees, not things that were obstructed.

Fortunately, the sonograms showed that there were no obstructions and that all internal organs were in their correct place. We gave Isaac some Pedilyte and made sure he could keep it down. Then we were sent on our way with instructions to count wet diapers and that tomorrow could bring with it diarrhea. Apparently Isaac caught a bug--we aren't sure from whom or from where. Currently he is sound asleep, after having a very watered down version of his nighttime bottle. His tummy has been settled since late this afternoon. The washer and dryer have been running nonstop due to the wake of throw-up soiled items that I had left throughout the house as I darted off to Urgent Care. When Tobe and I crawl in bed tonight, we will be thankful for simple puke and correctly stationed appendixes.