Ugh

The flu has hit our house hard. AJ came down with it on Tuesday as I was driving to Iowa with our nanny, K. At first I was picky about where we stopped, trying to stick to places with clean bathrooms that I knew. By the time we were three hours into the drive, I was willing to change his horrible diaper on a diaper deck in a truck stop, something I thought I would never do. It was the lesser of two evils compared to riding in the car with that lethal diaper, though.

This is the second driving trip to Iowa when I had a sense before we hit the Chicago suburbs that I should just throw in the towel and turn around. When I was a kid, we used to ride a roller coaster at Arnold's Park in Okoboji, Iowa that had a sign that said "Point of No Return" at the top of the first big hill before you went down that initial screamer of a drop. I am starting to think there should be a Point of No Return sign somewhere around the western Chicago suburbs for me on these Iowa drives. This was my last chance to visit Iowa before returning to work from maternity leave on March 3rd, so I ignored my instincts in favor of getting AJ to see my family before I go on a limited vacation and travel schedule. Trust me, though, I have learned my lesson on pushing travel with a sick kid, and if this happens again, I plan to turn around to return to home base immediately.

As far as the rest of the trip, AJ got sick all over one of his uncles, gave the flu to at least six relatives and friends in Iowa, made a trip to an ER in Des Moines for potential dehydration at the advice of our pediatrician back in Chicago and had a diaper blowout all over his car seat somewhere between mile 120 and 150 on our trip. As much as I love my family, we will not be making that drive again for a long, long time. On the plus side, our lovely nanny stuck with me through it all and did not quit immediately upon returning to the Chicago city limits.

The top picture is of a fussy AJ, poor guy. He has been this way for much of the past five days. The bottom picture is of AJ's Uncle Andy, Pops and Susan.