Rockford Trip (July 25-July 28)

Traveling with two kids under 2 is challenging! However, getting to spend time with family is priceless. 

Sunday

We left for a Rockford around 3:45pm Sunday, a later start than what we would have liked but I surprised Joel with an outing with his friends (I’ll post about that later) so we couldn’t leave earlier.  Thankfully, both kids gave me over an hour and a half nap to finish up the packing before Joel got home. 

We headed out and made it to Eau Claire where we stopped to get Noodles and Company for dinner.  Hailey barely ate her food but she had fun wandering around. Miles was SUPER stuffy, so we kept an eye on him. We swapped driving so Joel could be in the back, which my tummy appreciated. Hailey started to fall asleep but couldn’t get comfortable so her head would nod off and she would wake up. We stopped to get gas south of Wisconsin Dells and got the kiddos changed and into their PJs. I bought myself some spotted cow! I repositioned Hailey’s car seat so that she could sleep, but she sure found her second wind! She was playing games with Joel and a few times I got hit by a flying stuffed animal. 

We pulled into the hotel around 10, got the kids to bed as quickly as we could. Hailey went down pretty quickly. Miles struggled all night. Since it was a two bedroom suite, Joel had Hailey in one room in a pack n play and I had Miles in the other with another Pack n Play. He was up about every half hour to 45 minutes and would not go down. He didn’t want to eat, he just wanted to be held upright. He was so stuffy and coughing so badly. 

Monday

Everyone was up before 6 and I took Miles over to the ER because he was struggling so badly and was coughing until he was throwing up. His vitals checked out at the ER and the doctor said to just assume it’s RSV since Hailey had it (he was surprised that she had it in the summer, they must not be getting the gunk like we are since they probably lifted their mandates differently). We avoided a nasal swab and chest X-ray since his vitals looked good so we wouldn’t really treat it any differently and just needed to monitor. We definitely put the Nose Freida to good use.

After we got back to the hotel, I took Hailey down to the breakfast room (her second breakfast) so Joel could start working. Sheri met us in there to help a bit. We decided we would meet up with Joel’s grandma at Mary’s Market (so good!) but Sheri needed to go back to the campsite to get Dan and then pick up Grandma first. I took a quick shower since I had spit up in my hair (mom life 🤷‍♀️) and then took Hailey to a park for a bit. It was already pretty darn hot so we hopped back in the car and she watched Cocomelon while I drove around a bit and listened to my audiobook to kill time. 

We had a delicious breakfast at Mary’s Market (Hailey, surprisingly, ate so well! Later, Grandma would tel Joel that Hailey is such a good eater and he was so confused!), dropped food off with Joel and then headed to the campground. It was super hot so we just hung out in the shade a bit and tried to get Hailey to nap. That didn’t go well until I finally came into the camper and laid on the couch with her until she fell asleep on me. I sort of dozed but it was hard to get comfy with her on me. 

When she woke up, we left Miles with Dan and headed over to get groceries for dinner. Hailey fun hanging out with grandma and pushing the cart. Hailey and I shared some ice cream in their little mini mart while Sheri waited in the long line to check out.

Joel’s cousin and wife, their kids, and his aunt and uncle had just gotten to the campground when we got back. Dan went to go get Joel and Grandma while they set up camp and Hailey got to interact with the kids a bit. She had so much fun hunting for rocks with them! 

We had burgers (on pretzel buns, I need to buy those more often) and fruit. We chatted a bit but we ended up heading out not too long after eating since Hailey needed to get to bed before she was overtired. Hailey barely could keep her eyes open in the car, thankfully Joel rode in back with her. We got home and started baths (Hailey gave us a little scare with the tub…) and got the kids in bed. I fell asleep so fast! 

Hailey then woke up around midnight and screamed until about 1:30. She finally fell back asleep when Joel did the Big Little Feelings plan thing with her even though he was in the bed next to her. Miles was up from 3 to 4:30 coughing and making mommy nervous - I ended up holding him and patting his back nonstop to make sure he was doing okay. Oooft. 

Tuesday

We all were up around 6:30 and Joel was nice enough to take Miles so I could snuggle Hailey while she watched Cocomelon. I zonked back out and woke back up again over an hour later. Hailey was so sweet, she let me sleep until she plopped the tablet on my face and said “No Coco” and the  “Light On” - so we were up. 

The original plan was to go to the Discovery Center but we found out they are closed on Mondays and Tuesdays- such a bummer!! We ended up going to the camp site and just hanging out with the family all day.  Hailey had so much fun following around the other kids! They played at the playground, they pretended to be puppies in the expen, they threw a ball around.  I was able to successfully get her down for a nap in the air conditioned camper while Joel went to get lunch from Mary's Market.

It was quite warm out and we were definitely feeling it, especially Miles.  I ended up taking him back to the hotel to hang out in the air conditioning for a while and get a bath so that he could cool down.  Joel ended up bringing dinner back with him when I went to pick up him and Hailey because we needed to get her to bed.  She was so tired from all of the fun all day that she barely made it back to the hotel without falling asleep.  Joel had to ride in the back and tap her just to keep her eyes open.  We were able to eat dinner after the kids went to bed and Joel did a little bit of work while I read. 

But then we had an eventful night/morning....

Wednesday

We got a call to our room phone at 1am, which was definitely startling!  I thought it was a prank call, but I checked with the front desk later and it wasn't.  One of their sensors thought that our smoke alarm was going off and their protocol is to phone the room.

Miles took a turn for the worse around 3:30am.  He hadn't eaten very much at all, maybe only 8 ounces, the whole day.  He was stirring a little, coughing, so I figured I would feed him - but then he went into a horrible coughing fit, projectile spitting up his milk and coughing up so much phlegm.  Joel ended up coming into the room and we agreed I should take him in.  I went to a different ER (I thought I was going to the new hospital but google maps still doesn't have that listed, so I ended up at different one.  We got in and went through triage and then waited for almost 4 hours in the waiting room to be seen by a doctor.  Finally, after 8am we were able to get in.  He had tested positive for RSV and the doctor said he had bronchiolitis, which is terrifying since that's what he had the last time he was in the hospital.  He was also dehydrated.  Based on how he was looking, the doctor was borderline whether or not he wanted to admit Miles.  He decided that if Miles could drink some and his vitals stayed stable for a while, we would be discharged and come back if things got any worse.  Respiratory came down and gave me a suctiony thing to suck out his nose that was similar to our Nose Freida, but regulated pressure from the wall. I was texting one of my Second Time Mamas and she gave me some tips on how to make that work even better - I was able to get lots of boogers out of him!  He finally was able to get down some milk, so we were able to head out.  Joel's parents met me at the hospital and Sheri rode in the back to keep an eye on Miles while we drove back to the hotel. 

Once we got back, Joel, Hailey and Dan went to the Discovery center while Sheri and I hung back at the hotel with the dogs and Miles.  Sheri and I walked to Starbucks and then hung out in the air conditioned room and got packed up.  I was so thankful Joel was able to take Hailey to the Discovery Center.  His handprint is on the wall there from when he was a kid!  Hailey LOVED it.  Joel says her favorite part was all of the water stuff.  She played in the water table and when they went outside there was another water park area that Hailey immediately saw and said LA-LO (her version of water)!  They hung out there for about an hour, which was just enough to tire Hailey out!  She headed back to the cities with Dan and Sheri while Joel and I took Miles and headed out to Madison for the Crossfit Games.  Thankfully they have a nice Children's Hospital that we will be semi close to - hopefully we won't need it!

Joel’s handprint on the wall at the Discovery Center