The Family Vacation - Part 2

As promised, the conclusion to the cliffhanger that was our vacation up to Wisconsin for the 4th of July holiday. When last we left off I had regaled you on how fantastic Benjamin did in the actual traveling part of our trip, and mentioned that he got sick.

Before I get to the sickness, let me tell you about the one vacation day we did have with Benjamin. It started out with Emily and I getting to join the breakfast caravan to a legendary Scandinavian restaurant called Al Johnson's, WITHOUT the baby. This was a simple pleasure that we both enjoyed, and probably was the reason we slowly sipped our coffee and chewed our food 32 times to stretch out the occasion.

Al Johnson's is renowned for its Swedish pancakes, everyone gets them, except for me. I just don't like them, but I give them one bite each year to win me back over. I prefer some nice old world oatmeal with fresh berries - yes, I get sufficiently made fun of. Even when I place my order the waitress looks at me like, "We serve oatmeal?!" And it usually takes forever to get my food because the guys in the back are trying to quickly read the instructions on the back of the oatmeal box. Oh well, my cardiologist appreciates my choice.

We get back from breakfast and it's time to hit the Door County Fourth of July parade. I really do love this piece of small town Americana, where a parade is made up of war vets, local businesses and patriotic people who love their families and country. The kids go crazy for the candy, I just enjoyed the moment seeing my son sitting on my wife's lap waving a little American flag. I never thought those words would ever come out of my mouth. Now THIS was a nice family vacation moment I could check off my list.

The next opportunity to make some more memories was at a local man-made beach on Lake Michigan. But with the amount of gear we had in tow you'd think the beach we were going to was Omaha. It would almost be easier to bring sand and dump it at the lakehouse and turn the sprinkler on. We get to the beach and the fun begins - all of those picture book memory moments were about to happen. But the reality quickly sunk in that Benjamin is just too young to really partake. Emily dipped his feet in the water (freezing lake water) and he was nonplussed, but he was captivated by seeing the little waves trickle over the sand and stones. Each wave brought with it a new bit of magic to him, that was neat to see him transfixed on something so natural and simple that adults routinely dismiss it.

I'm told I hated the sand when I was a baby. I have passed this loathing on to my son. Totally hated it. We quickly ran out of things to do with a baby at the beach. We smeared $7.00 worth of baby sunscreen on him and it was so thick it felt like trying to swallow peanut butter with a dry mouth. Then we just took turns holding up a tented beach towel over him to make sure he wouldn't get burnt. Then he had to eat, followed by sleep, so our beach blanket bingo was short and sweet.

That night we had a nice meal with all of the family at a place that fries anything, I think my menu was even battered. He who eats oatmeal also chooses to shun deep-fried foods, so I ordered the "Broasted Chicken". Take a moment and think what the preparation method of "broasting" could mean. If you're like me it means a combination of "broiled" and "roasted" - sounds delicious, right? Negative. "Broasting" means you deep fry the chicken in a pot with the lid on it, because you don't want any of that fat and oil to bubble out of the pan now do we? Barf. It was a great event, but I wanted to smack the cook up side his head with this broasted carcass sitting on my plate.

(The next order of events may not be 100% accurate, but it's the way I remembered it)

Even though it is summer time, Wisconsin nights drop down to the low 60's. Perfect for us, problematic for babies. Towards the end of this night we noticed that Benjamin was feeling really warm and wasn't his usual jovial self. We took his temperature and he was a little warmer than usual, nothing to go crazy over. This was, however, the first fever Benjamin had ever had. We made him as comfortable as possible and went to sleep.

I can't remember what time it was (3:30am?) when we wake up to the sound of choking/coughing/death knell of a forest creature, to instantly discover that it is coming from Benjamin. We pull him out of the crib and his hands and feet are freezing, but he was burning up. We took his temperature again and it kept rising like an oven preheating - 100...101...101.5...oh no. Panic sheared through our sleepiness, not really knowing what to do with a feverish baby and the closest real hospital is 45 minutes away. The hilarious thing to me now is that we were trying so hard not to disturb anyone else in the house, to the point where I'm using my iPod's illuminated screen to shine on us instead of the lamp - dumb.

Our sister in-law and mother of 3 was thankfully in the next room and gave us some great advice and calmed our fears as much as possible. We gave him baby medicine and after 24 hours the fever had broken, but there were a few moments where Emily and I shared some serious non-verbal communication to each other that said, "Is our baby going to live through the night?" New parent hysterics, sleep-deprivation - call it whatever you want. I had a genuine sense of fear for the life of my little baby, even to the point where I started to imagine about all of the things he wouldn't have a chance to experience. I don't even want to think about it again.

The legacy left from his sickness is something called...The Croup. Not to be confused with the C.H.U.D. The Croup is a respiratory affliction that blah, blah, blah WebMD stuff goes here. It is a cough that makes babies sound like a sea otter. My non-professional diagnosis is phlegm in the deep throat, but a baby has no idea how to get it out like we would. The trouble with the Croup is that when your baby does cough up some gunk, they could choke on it. Maybe Hendrix had the Croup too.

So began "Baby Watch 2008." Emily and I elected to spend the rest of our vacation (for the most part) staying close by Benjamin's side in order to suction out the crud when he coughed it up - not something you'd find on a Carnival Cruise brochure.

My wave of emotions went like this - relief that his fever broke, concerned about the Croup, frustrated that the prototypical vacation was compromised by the Croup, came to terms with the situation, then really enjoyed the time with Benjamin. It occurred to me that maybe him getting sick was actually the best thing to happen to our trip this year. Emily and I had already done everything there is to do in Door County in years past, but how often do we both have a week away from work to just interact with our baby?

The rest is sorta history. We cut our trip a little short to get him checked out by someone a little more professional than the small town Dr. Quinn, but even that was a fun little experience. So all in all, it was a nice family trip. Still not a "vacation", but we have plenty of time to scratch those off our lists in the years to come.