The Panes, The Panes!

We survived Ben's first plane ride! All in all, Ben did incredibly well, especially given the circumstances. Ben has been sick for the past week and a half. Yes, 1.5 weeks. He had an ear infection, and when we thought that was figured out, he started vomiting, etc. so he went off the meds. and back came the ear infection, then the vomiting started again...it was terrible. Thursday before we left we went to the doctor who said he has to stay on the medication to get rid of the ear infection and we just needed to "deal". Okaaaaaayyyyy......

By the time we got to the airport on Friday, I was a hot mess because I was convinced I was going to permanently damage my kid's ear drums while simultaneously having to sit in his diarrhea for 1.5 hours. PS - Ben was acting fine, he just would randomly "poop" (his words not mine) often and badly.

When we arrived at the gate we had about 30 minutes to kill before boarding. Perfect...I juiced Ben up with some infant Tylenol and purchased some milk at the newsstand. Ben LOVED the airport. Really, if we are having a tough day, I will just go there and hang out. He said "hi" to about 50 people, individually, and loved the big window where he could look at the "panes".

Then it happened - we were being delayed. AH! I won't go into the gory details, but we were delayed 3 HOURS. Ben was great...really he was. And if we didn't get delayed he would have been perfect on the flight. So, basically we didn't board until 4:45 (Ben starts getting ready for bed at 6:30!). Once we were on the plane he was really antsy, whiney, upset, etc.). Mark and Kathie couldn't hold him because they were seated in an exit row - against their will I might add, so Nate and I did the best we could by showing him the lights and the window, etc. As soon as we started taxiing down the runway he grabbed the cup from me and fell asleep (finally, a break!). He slept for about 45 minutes and then woke up and was pretty OK. By this time though, he was pretty messed up - time wise, schedule wise, eating, etc. (The picture is of Ben when we landed).

Tony picked us up and took us over to their place. I tried to give Ben something to eat, but he really wasn't interested - he just needed to go to bed! All was well since Chrissy's house is more kid-friendly than mine...until I went to go up to bed myself. I could smell something terrible at the door. Ben had thrown up ALL OVER the place and was just lying in it. I rushed in and started shaking him and screaming and he did not respond. I became hysterical! I think I was harkening back to the ol' college days when throwing up in your sleep meant certain death. Turns out he was just in a really deep sleep. Since Nate and I were so scarred we let Ben sleep in the bed with us, which is pure torture.

The next morning he woke up completely fine. He ate breakfast for the first time in a week and felt so good that in the first 3 minutes of playing with his cousin Eliza he stole her toys and made her cry. He was totally fine from that moment on (crossing my fingers as I write).

The ride home was completely drama free (except that Mark is terribly ill now with a flu bug) and he was really perfect. Next time we fly with him I think it will have to be for a longer stay somewhere, because it is really a lot to deal with for a weekend, but it was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. Yet again, Ben surprised me! Oh, and the bad news for Dad is that Ben now LOVES dogs and "panes."