Didn't Plan on Needing Pedialite Today

I had a doctor's appointment early this morning, so my grandma came over to watch Caleb. I left with him still asleep and Great Grandma waiting for him to wake on the couch.

I walk back in the house an hour later. It's totally silent in the house, his bottle is still on the counter, Great Grandma still on the couch waiting. He's still asleep. At 8:30. This NEVER happens.

I go in to his room and start whispering his name, his little head pops up. I happily grab him and take him out to the kitchen. We say goodbye to Great Grandma and then we sit down on the couch to drink his milk.

"Why were you so sleepy?" I ask. Caleb stares back at me as he guzzles his bottle. Well... most of it. He normally drinks 4 oz in the morning, but I can't get him to drink any more than 3. "Aren't you hungry?" I ask. This is normally the part of the morning when he sits down for a nice breakfast of toast and banana.

I set him down in his high chair and "bluh---" here comes all the milk he just drank. Caleb smiles up at me, like nothing's wrong. I get him cleaned up and hand him a few pieces of toast. He nibbles happily. I snack on some bagel and cream cheese. Surely, everything is fine.

After I take him out of the high chair, he immediately squats down next to it. Time to change the diaper. We get him cleaned up and I leave him on the floor of his bedroom so I can go wash my hands. I don't hear the "bluh---" this time (even though I'm sure it happened) but I do hear the crying afterwards. I rush into his room and there he sits, in a big pile of toast puke.

Poor baby! I quickly pick him up and throw the blanket he just puked on in the laundry. (Wasn't that a blessing! He didn't puke on the carpet, but on an easily-cleaned blanket!) Then we make a phone call I've made WAY too many times in the past year- the call to Nurse Triage at the pediatrician's office.

It takes a while for them to get back to me. Caleb seems happy, and doesn't look like he's going to throw up any more. The only thing we had on the calendar for today was to shop at the party store for his first birthday party. I decide that he's healthy enough to do that.

(Silly me! Nothing bad happened while we were gone, but really! What would I have done if my mother suggested going shopping for my birthday party after I had just puked twice?? Probably fought tooth and nail. What does Caleb do? Smile like he knows that Sunday will be the best day of his little life and that yes, mother, he would LOVE to shop for it.)

As we drive to Party City, I wonder if he has a fever. How could I have not checked that? Why are we in the car anyway? We walk into the party store and are greeted by a life-size replica of Freddy Kreuger. It talks and moves, too. I wonder if EVERY year we shop for Caleb's birthday, will we have to put up with Halloween junk...

We finish our shopping in a record 10 minutes and get back in the car. When we get home, Caleb seems ready for his nap, even though he's only been awake for 2 hours. I lay him down and he falls asleep so quickly. Poor sick, baby.

I sit down to do my quiet time and I am interrupted by the doctor's office. The nurse gives me a Pedialite regimen to follow. 1 teaspoon every 5 minutes for an hour. 2 teaspoons every 10 minutes for another hour. 2 oz every 20 minutes for an hour after that. I hang up the phone, already exhausted. Caleb's still sleeping. We don't have any Pedialite.

So when he wakes up, I smile at him and thrust him back in the car. He's sweet and happy-hearted the entire time.

We return from the grocery with the Pedialite and I begin giving him droppers of "special juice" every 5 minutes. And, somehow, this is kind of fun. Caleb lays on my lap, while I squeeze the dropper. He giggles when I tickle his tummy. He plays with the dropper. We get to do this every 5 minutes.

For the next 3 hours, he and I just have fun. Every 5, 10, 20 minutes, I pick him up, snuggle him and give him a bit of special juice.

This is NOT what I had planned for today. This IS what God had planned. What a gift! Of all the kinds of sickness to hit, thanks God, that it was easy enough to clean up. Thanks that snuggling is part of the cure. Thanks that we didn't have to cancel a lot of plans in order to do this.

Thanks, God, that you gently snuggle us and give us everything we need every 5, 10, 20 seconds...

Proverbs 19:21

New International Version 1984 (NIV1984)

²¹ Many are the plans in a man’s heart,
but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails.