Count your blessings instead of sheep....: We're Baaaack.

My goal while Cayce was gone was to get Lily sitting on her own. She had been working on it before he left, but my main focus was to take the 10 days and give her many opportunities to practice. Look who figured it out the night before we left! Notice Choco lurking in the back ground. Just waiting for Lily to topple over so she can give her kisses.

Lily and I visited Cayce in DC for the last half of his TAD. We were there, one big happy family, living in a hotel room for 10 days. We had lots of fun and saw lots new things. By "we" I mean Lily. However, before we could enjoy our vacation we had to get to our vacation. I worried and fussed for several days prior to our big trip, and prepared for every contingency. In the end Lily did wonderfully on the flights. It was me who I apparently needed to be worried about.

On the first leg of the flight I nursed Lily until she fell asleep, and asleep is how she stayed until we made our final descent. As we deplaned people kept commenting how quiet she was, and they didn't even know there was a baby on the plane. Yay, one leg down, one more to go. We barely had time to trek all the way from one end of Charlotte International to the other. Oh and guess what, apparently you're not supposed to use the moving walk ways with a stroller. Blarg. I was so thristy and hungry. I passed one eating establishment after another looking longingly at the fare. I passed a wine bar and looked at the patrons peacefully sipping their beverages. Meanwhile I'm literally breaking a sweat as I raced from terminal B to E. I finally made it, and guess what, my plane is BOARDING. No early boarding for us. On with the masses we go. We're one of the last few to make the plane. Luckily I was sitting next to a very nice older gentleman, and he asked if I needed help. He happily held Lily while I stuffed my backpack in the over head, situated all the other goodies, and prepared Lily's bottle. Sweet baby came back into my arms, got comfy on the boppy, and proceeded to FINISH her bottle only minutes into the flight. Well, there goes that plan. I planned on Lily napping during the flight from Charlotte to Baltimore. It was during her scheduled nap time, and usually after finishing an entire 8 oz bottle she is totally out of commission. Not this baby! She was up and telling everyone all about her day. She had those around us laughing. She is a very noisy girl when she wants to be, and on that day she wanted to be. Thankfully she wasn't fussy. We received our complementary beverage. I chose tomato juice since I was hungry and thirsty (a decision I will regret about 20 minutes later), thinking this might cover the bases. Lily was very curious about my tomato juice. I eventually soaked her pacifier in it, and then she finally understood why I kept telling her she wouldn't like it.

*Warning*

Those with delicate stomachs may not want to read the conclusion to the story.

Finally, we start our initial descent. In my head I'm congratulating myself on successfully getting Lily from point A to point B and to point C without any major mishaps. I spoke too soon. There is major cloud cover at BWI from the extra-tropical storm. Now let's rewind. While pregnant I discovered little tolerance for turbulence. I happily took Fenegren during my flights to keep from losing everything. While planning for this trip I took notice of the weather, and in the back of my mind I thought about the potential turbulence. I pacified my concerns by telling myself my issues last year were due to being in my 1st trimester. I was wrong. After the captain informs us of our descent, and tells everyone to turn off electronic devices and return our trays and seats to their upright positions the man sitting next to the window on my row panics and must get up heading for the bathroom. Now mind you, here I am standing up in the aisle with the plan rocking and rolling, with Lily in my arms. People are literally holding on to me to help me stay upright. I understood though. It was that bad, and if you gotta go, you gotta go. So the nice older gentleman and I settle back into our seats. Maybe 3 minutes later, what hit that man, hit me. I start looking for a barf bag. I couldn't find it, and the nice older gentleman then starts to look in his seat pocket. Thank God he found a bag. He asks if I would like him to hold Lily again. I gratefully hand her over. I'm breathing deeply trying to keep things under control. Telling myself we're about to land I can hold it together until then. Unfortunately, I look around and see other people doing the same thing. It was that bad. So that's it. I let go. I'm actually silently crying b/c I can't believe this is happening. However, as soon as it is over I feel 100 times better. I thank the nice older gentleman, and tell him I feel much better, but either he just loves holding Lily or he doesn't believe me because he just tells me to relax and he and Lily are fine. Good thing he did. A minute or so later the sickness comes back with a vengeance, and there goes everything I ate that day (which was very little to begin with), including my tomato juice. This time when I finish I don't feel better. I feel worse. I'm shaky, exhausted, and still nauseated. By this point, guess who's asleep. Lily has fallen asleep in the nice older gentleman's arms. I thank him profusely, and he continues to hold Lily until we start deplaning. Now if that was all that had happened. I think I could have gotten over it easily. However, the worst happens. While I have the bag between my legs sitting in the seat. IT BUSTS! IT BUSTS! Now the seat and I are covered in vomit. Without thinking I push the bag onto the floor. Now the floor is being covered in vomit. OMG. Could this get any worse?? I let everyone leave the plane. People are walking by us. All looking at Lily. "oh poor baby, did she get sick?" I admit it was me, leaving one lady to chuckle telling me to go ahead and blame on Lily, she won't know any better. Blah.

So in the end the ridiculously friendly and patient flight crew help me clean up my mess and me. They take turns holding Lily, and try their darnedest to make me feel better. I tell them here I was worried about Lily's first flight, ears popping, diaper changes, wanting to keep her happy, keep her quiet, etc when I'm actually the one with the flying issues. I practically crawled to meet Cayce. I wasn't as cheerful as I would have liked. My blood suger was in the negatives, and I felt disgusting. Lily was super happy to see Cayce. She just loved being in his arms. We loaded up the truck. Lily quickly fell asleep, and we pulled through Chic-Fil-A. One bite had me feeling better. By the end of the meal I felt great and, was able to enjoy the fact I had finally made up to the DC area. I'm utterly mortified about my mishap, but I'm so thankful for all the strangers who helped us through the day. It gave me a little hope for humanity. There were people in the Savannah and Charlotte airports who looked at a flustered momma and readily gave me a hand. If only I hadn't thrown up it would have been a perfect day.