Thanksgiving
Sammy was sick a lot as a baby. He had an incessant cough and was constantly fighting a runny nose. He had asthma. Countless times I had to clear mucus from his throat because he was having trouble getting a breath. I got scared a lot. He had RSV a couple of times. He had pneumonia. We had x-rays done on his tiny chest and prednisone and spent a lot of time on the nebulizer with albuterol treatments.
Ben had asthma and a couple of bouts with the nebulizer, but being an only child for quite a while and somehow inheriting his father’s Ironman-Esque immune system, he was rarely sick. We called the nebulizer his Buzz Lightyear mask. Treatments made him tired and he’d fall asleep in my lap breathing in the medicine. Sammy fought that thing covering his face, he hated it and it was so frequent. We often weren’t prepared for the many differences between the boys.
Sam also isn’t a great sleeper. His nighttime sleep isn’t restful. He wriggles and is a very light and short sleeper. His naps only ever happened when he was moving: stroller, bike seat, or car seat. Not a great way to boost that immune system.
His immune system still isn’t great. I don’t know if you truly inherit immunity, but if he did, he got mine. I don’t know if it’s affected by having an older sibling who is exposed and brings stuff home when a child is younger and whose body isn’t ready for it yet – Sam and I are both second children. I could throw out a lot of theories, but the fact is, Sammy gets sick and when he does, it’s really sick. Twice just in November, he got sick and both times his fever reached and sustained a temperature of 104. It’s hard as a parent to know what to do. You put them in the tub, alternate medicine, give them liquids, take covid tests, and call the nurse. You know they’ll get better, but you sit there just kind of helpless trying to go about your day.
The last time Sam got sick, we were supposed to be on our way to Colorado. We had been planning this trip for about 6 months. We had new a niece and a new nephew born this year and were excited to go out to spend the holidays together – the whole Wright family. We also had given Ben a gift to go to Convergence Station and wanted to spend the day there on the way. We’ve been trying to get to the Meow Wolfs for a few years now.
But Sammy was burning up and while we had seen him recover quickly with rest before, we had also seen him overdo it and take a bad turn. He has spent a lot of holidays trying to participate and making it much worse for himself (I’m looking at you two Christmases with vomit on the floor and one 4th of July with a drive that took twice as long to get home and ended with vomit on the dog…)
We decided to try to adjust. Nothing new with our travels. Adjusting is the name of the game. We had a built-in overnight in Nebraska to ease the drive and get an early start for Convergence Station. We cut out the overnight and Convergence Station – promising to get there ASAP. We would have to see how Sam felt with an extra day of rest. We would see if he would be well enough for a day of rest in the car (on top of everything else, Sam has acid reflux that activates his motion sickness, especially when he is sick).
We were not always good at adjusting. We had to learn this. Pivoting when Jeff’s come down after his law school graduation, the bar exam, and the results of passing finally all slammed into him and we had to postpone our trip a day. Changing plans for our honeymoon when our plane was struck by lightning and we were stuck in the airport for 8 hours with no information but an announcement every 30-60 minutes saying it would be “soon”. We ended up with two honeymoons by renting a car to Spring Green, WI, and making phone calls on the way to get a travel voucher to go to Disney World a few months later. Getting our car broken into and our things stolen in St. Louis, we had to pivot. We found a place that could fix our window in a short time, called our insurance agent to start a claim, purchased the necessities, and continued our trip. We were resolved to appreciate the time we had and the plans we made. We handled the remainder of the logistics when we arrived home.
There have been literally a million hiccups like this in life and our travels. We’ve had to pause, take a breath, decide together what is important, and how we can facilitate that. In this instance, our priorities were Sam getting better and then seeing the family. We let everyone know he was sick since they would be exposed. They seemed most concerned about the time we would be there, so we let them know we were doing our best and worked on getting Sam the rest he needed.
As you may guess, Sam was up for the drive. It was a quick trip. It was good to see the family. It was so nice to finally meet our little niece, Winnie. She is adorable. Her eyes are wide and alert. I got to rock her to sleep a couple of times. Our nephew is so fun to play with. His laugh is infectious. He smiles and eats everything and has a sunny disposition. I always love hanging out with our nieces. Spending time with them is one of those things that just feels like home. I like catching up in person and getting to hear their stories and laughing together. Watching them grow is one of life’s joys.
We ate a big delicious meal, spent time playing and talking, and we headed back. Sam made a full recovery in the mountain air.
We made it home in time to celebrate Jeff’s birthday. We ice skated which Jeff and Sam are apparently pros at and Ben and I can kind of do. The boys made brookies for Jeff’s birthday “cake”. We spent time together as a family, adjusting our ideas of the way things should be. Thankful for our time together.
