Vacation equals Rest and Relaxation, right?

Family vacations are supposed to be relaxing with no deadlines, no bosses telling you to do, and all the happy go lucky shit.  I had dreams of a nice relaxing vacation.  I planned on walking 15,000-20,000 steps a day (logged with my FitBit), playing with Ava, watching Ben fish, and relaxing.  Well, my vacation sucked.  Between Ava’s belly troubles and then to top if off I washed my FitBit, I didn’t get much R&R.   

On odd years we rent a beach house in the Outer Banks with Ben’s family.  It is great fun with his parents, siblings & family, a cousin, and this year an uncle and cousin.   We can focus completely on his side of the family versus trying to split our time between my family and his when we are visiting in Pennsylvania.  This year there was a total of 18 people.  It was a full house but we still had some good family time. 

We were the last to arrive and therefore got stuck with the smallest bedroom which I didn’t mind at first.  We shared a bathroom with Ben’s sisters family and it worked out.  The problem with the room is that there was barely any room to walk once the pac-n-play was set up.  Still, my thoughts were no big deal the bedroom is only for sleeping.  Ha. Sleeping.  What a funny concept. 

There was no sleeping in our room and not because of fun hanky-panky time but because Miss Ava wasn’t feeling well. Poor baby had to have her diaper changed a lot the first couple of nights like I swear ever hour or two.  Her belly must have been giving her some major fits because she would just cry.  So Ben and I were up all night for a couple of nights tag teaming Ava trying to get her into that good sleep in this jail cell sized room.  Every time we thought she was there she would just start screaming when we laid her down.  I felt the walls caving in on me trying to get her to sleep before she woke everyone up.  It was rough. It was frustrating. 

I would apologies to everyone in the morning if we woke them up and they all seemed to be understanding about it all.  Ben’s mom couldn’t hear Ava/us (she slept on the other side of the house) and kept telling us to come get her and she would help throughout the night but we never did.  Maybe if Ava was feeling better I would have but I just felt bad leaving my sick child with her and leaving my sick child period.

We ended up doing the BRAT diet strictly and gave her Motrin and she started to act better towards the end of the week. But if the sickness/fussiness/lack of sleep didn’t ease up by Tuesday night I think Ben would have made us go home.  We were exhausted plan and simple. 

We ended up leaving Friday night and driving straight home (approx. 10 hrs).  It worked out the best, i.e., Ava slept.  It was funny to see how she perked up once we were home.  It is like she was ready for vacation to be over with and was a completely different baby now that she was home. 

Even since we have been home, she still isn't sleeping well.  I think it is teething.  But I have thought her fussiness/miserableness was teething before and yet 9 months (holy crap 9 months!!) and still no teeth.  

So lesson learned, babies still get sick even when you are vacation.