Long Utah Visit (the first half)

(So I posted this a few days ago and it was fine. Some people even read it. Then that night all but the first paragraph disappeared. I was so confused, and annoyed. I went to bed hoping that everything would have returned overnight, but it didn't. So I'll try and remember what I wrote about, and re-do it. By the way, this was one of those ongoing posts that I worked on here and there for about 5 days and I was so glad to finally be done with it! Now it's lost.)

Garrett and I are in Utah, without Paul. The day after the birthday party we headed out with my parents. We got a bit of a late start because I had a doctors appointment and after that Garrett had PT. So we didn’t get on the road til close to noon. That was our first mistake. I’ve finally learned that Garrett only does well for long stretches in the car if we make it to our destination before dark.

About an hour and a half into the drive Garrett was asleep and started coughing...and coughing...and coughing... It finally woke him up. He'd try and fall back to sleep but the coughing kept him up. After a couple hours of listening to this 'seal barking' cough, I decided I'd better do something about it. It's a pretty unmistakable cough, and the first time you hear your child do it, you'll understand how spot on the description of the cough is, and you can be about 100% sure its Croup.

I called Paul to figure out our insurance for out of network/ER coverage. Then I text a friend who's son has had it. She suggested I call our ped and see if I can get something prescribed over the phone. Sure enough, when I described the cough to the nurse, she said it was croup. They called in a prescription to a Target pharmacy in St. George and we picked it up a couple hours later. Gave Garrett his first dose, and we were on our way again.

It was a long drive home. Garrett was sick and tired and couldn't get comfortable. My mom and I took turned trying to keep him happy. We finally got to Bountiful just before 2AM.

I had 1 year pictures scheduled for Garrett the next afternoon. I was dreading it. We hadn't slept well, Garrett was sick and I just didn't want to go. But we did it. And it was quite possibly the happiest I've ever seen Garrett. He smiled, laughed and did just what the photographer wanted him to. Even after a sleepless night, being woken from a nap to do the pictures, being on a steroid, and having croup, I'm still so happy with how the pictures turned out. (more to come)Sunday was a lazy catch up day at home. That night my aunt had a shower for Taylor and Samira.
Monday I worked on wedding stuff and made dinner for the Elberts. I finally got to meet baby girl Bennett!

Tuesday my sister in law Laura and I got our hair done and went shopping. (This was one of my favorite days. I love fresh blonde and it had been WAY too long!)

I'll finish the rest of the trip later.

The trip has gone by pretty fast, and has been a lot of fun. But 2 weeks is long when you feel like I feel (poor me), you have a one year old to chase around (thankful for Grandma and all she does, and that G loves her so much), and you're husband-less (Paul was here for a total of 26 hours, in the morning of the wedding and out the next morning for another wedding in California).