This weekend was crazy and good and bad.
The crazy part is that of the 8 in our current household, we needed to be in four different states: Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, and South Dakota. Matt headed north, Asa headed east, the littles and I headed south, and Justus, Elias, and Malachi stayed in Nebraska, except not at home because they had college and/or a big youth rally to attend.
The good part is that Matt got to enjoy lots of great soccer coaching time with his college team. Asa got to see his girlfriend and buy/bring home a new-to-him car. Justus got to get caught up on college responsibilities. Elias and Malachi got to go back to their beloved church camp to spend three days having fun and digging into the Word with friends. Meanwhile...
Brayden, Boy Babe, and I drove all by ourselves to Kansas to surprise my dad for his 70th birthday. Thankfully, the littles traveled great! We got to spend time with so many wonderful family members and sure enough, we pulled off the surprise. My dad had no idea we were all coming. SO FUN!
The bad part is that Brayden had come down with a minor illness a few days before we left for Kansas. He was doing significantly better before we headed south, so I felt that we were fine to still make the trip. I don't regret going; it was a fabulous time. However...
Brayden took a turn for the worse the moment we arrived. Low fever coming and going, no appetite, and that cough. The cough is what kept him from sleeping. And since he wasn't sleeping, I wasn't sleeping. And since he didn't want to miss any of the nighttime fun, the Boy Babe decided not to sleep either. (Insert tired mom emoji here.)
I wasn't at home, so while I did have a few essential oils in my bag, I didn't have any of my other natural remedy options available. (What was I thinking?? Never leave home without them! Yeah, well, I was just trying to get 8 people to 4 different states in one piece, while driving with two babies on a road trip by myself. So while I had the other two-thousand items we needed for traveling with little ones, I did not think to take my medicine cabinet.)
My brother, sister-in-law, nieces, nephews - everyone was a tremendous help with our sick and tired littles. But the lack of sleep, the coughing and the puking (because he pukes when he coughs)...
I made a decision to give him some over-the-counter meds. What choice did I have? We all needed to sleep. He was miserable. Those meds are there for us when we need them, right? Right.
But then a thing happened, and now I can't decide if I made the right decision or not.
To be continued...
