Weekend Getaway (a.k.a. Birthday Barf-O-Rama)

Happy Presidents' Day! For some reason that greeting never really caught on. It's definitely not my favorite holiday, but anytime I get a 3-day weekend, I'm glad. So, as I said, Happy Presidents' Day! We spent the weekend down in Sunriver, Oregon (near Bend) at our friend Jim's parents' house. They have a huge vacation home there, so we had 11 adults and 4 children staying there. Henry and I drove over Saturday morning since Jeff was still working. He did pretty well on the 4-hour drive. He slept the first 2 1/2 hours, was o.k. for the next 1/2 hour, and then whined and cried for the last hour. He REALLY wanted to get out of his car seat. Jeff didn't make it there until Sunday, so as soon as he arrived we went for a walk. In the COLD. It was snowing earlier in the day, and it was really cold! Did I mention that it was cold? We only walked for about 10 minutes before turning around because it was way too cold for Henry, who didn't have any gloves with us. Bad Mommy!

Jim's birthday was on Sunday, so we were all there to help him celebrate.

Unfortunately, we ended up calling it "Birthday Barf-O-Rama" or "Noro (VIRUS) Birthday." All of a sudden on Saturday, Amber became violently ill. She spent most of the night on the bathroom floor. We thought it might have been food poisoning. Until 2 1/2-year-old Sebastian threw up later that night. The next day, it struck Bryan. He threw up all night. Then Sunday night, it was Mark's turn. I haven't heard whether there were any more casualties after we QUICKLY left early today, and so far our family seems fine. Knock on wood.

I don't think I've ever mentioned on this blog what a great sleeper Henry is. I usually don't talk about it, because every time I do, he has a terrible night's sleep that night. I'm taking a chance by writing this down, but I'll throw caution to the wind just this once. Henry started sleeping through the night at 8 weeks, and with very few exceptions, he has been a great night sleeper. This was NOT the case at Sunriver. He has spent the night away from home before and has done great. Saturday night he screamed and cried when I tried to put him down at his usual 7:30 time. I can't stand to let him cry, so I got him back up and didn't put him down until about 9:30. He seemed o.k. until 2:45 a.m. when he woke up SCREAMING. I picked him up, calmed him down, and fed him a bottle, but he wouldn't go back to sleep. He wouldn't go back into his crib. He wouldn't sleep in bed with me. He finally went back to sleep at about 4:15...then he woke up at 6:30. Not good. Sunday night was a bit better. He went down at 7:30 with very minimal crying. But, then he woke up crying at 11:00. And 11:30. And 12:00. And so on. It was another rough night. I thought at least he would sleep well in the car on the way home. I thought. He slept for the first 40 minutes of the drive, but woke up when I stopped for gas. Then he wouldn't go back to sleep. He wanted OUT! Here is a very unhappy Henry....

After 1 1/2 hours of whining and crying, and then a stop for pizza with Jeff, and then MORE whining, he finally fell asleep in the car.

He slept for the last 40 minutes of the drive and then for another hour in the car in the garage. I just put him down for the night in his own crib. Hopefully he'll sleep all night...and none of us will throw up.