Easter is Exhausting

The above pictures of my son are a wonderful depiction of our family's thoughts on Easter this year. We'll start with Saturday evening. We were supposed to go out with my Granddad for dinner Saturday night, however, he was feeling dizzy, so we decided to grab some pizza and head to his house for dinner instead. After dinner, Granddad was feeling dizzy again, so he decided to lie down in his recliner for a few minutes. It didn't take long for him to start feeling sick (and getting sick), so we we realized we needed to get Brian out of there.

My parents were in Arkansas for my cousin's wedding, so we were in charge of Granddad for the weekend. Obviously, Brian couldn't be around him, but we felt that he needed some type of overnight care. We called the nursing home on the property where he lives to see if there was a room available and there was not. We also called a care provider service that we have used before, but with it being a holiday, they couldn't help either. After all of the scurrying to get someone there, Granddad was feeling a bit better, so we made the frustrating decision to let him stay alone as long as he promised to call no matter what time if he started to feel badly again. He looked great when I left him, so I was hopeful he was on the upswing.

He wasn't. At 5:15a.m. we were awoken by a phone call from one of the nurses where he lives. Granddad had called 911 when he was too dizzy to get up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. I found out later that he couldn't find his glasses to be able to read my phone number, so he called 911 since he knows that by heart!

So of course, we jumped out of bed and I threw in my contacts, put some clothes on and pumped some milk for a bottle for Brian. I was in the E.R. before 6a.m. I had to wait to see Granddad because they had just gotten there with the ambulance. When I was finally allowed to go in, I found out that they were running all sorts of tests to rule out a heart attack or stroke. Once all of the tests were in, the doctor came in to tell us that he was reasonably certain Granddad was just inexplicably dizzy, and that if we were okay with it, he could go home.

By this time it was around 9 in the morning, and since we didn't want him to be home alone, we arranged for the nursing home to let him sit in their day room until my Mom could get back from Arkansas. On the way to the Manor, he got sick again, and started to waver in his resolve to stay out of the hospital. In the end, he decided to go to the Manor and wait for my Mom. He was feeling better by the time she arrived, so this was probably a good decision.

It was 10 a.m. when I left the Madonna Manor. We need to be at church at 11:30. I raced home, nursed Brian, took a very fast shower, grabbed a granola bar and banana, and we were in the car. We made it St. Pius by 11:10!

Now, remember, Brian is only 9 months old, so he ate absolutely no candy yesterday. However, I think Easter must just make kids crazy, because he was a maniac in church! There were so many other kids there, and he was vying for all of the attention he could get. I ended up having to take him out for awhile and get him to sleep.

We left Mass after Communion (which I HATE doing), but I considered myself lucky to have been able to attend Mass at all! We then had to run to the store to grab applesauce and ice, run home to get Easter baskets for my nieces, the cookies I made with Kate and Jennie (thanks girls!), and some other food items for lunch at Shawn's sister's house. We made it Easter lunch a little late, but well before many of Shawn's family members.

Brian got many, many Easter baskets at Heather's house. I'm not from a family that gives presents for Easter (outside of the child's home), so this is new to me. It seemed to be a bit too much, but when in Rome, right? :) Brian definitely enjoyed visiting with everyone and it's always fun to get the kids together. I wasn't really in the mood for a party because I was so sleepy.

We left Heather's around 4, and did some housework when we got back home. My family came over around 6, and we headed down to Brio for dinner. Dinner was good, but it was sad that Granddad couldn't be there. By then he was resting comfortably at my parents' house and feeling much better. Shawn had a drink with dinner, which he never does, so that just goes to show how long our day was!!

When we got home around 8, Brian was conked out, so we put him into bed in his Easter clothes. He was up around 9, and back asleep on Shawn's lap by about 9:06p.m. That's when I snapped the pictures at the beginning of this very long post. We realized that he had not yet had his antibiotic, so we decided we had to strip him and give it to him. Brian is really not a fan of anything new, so it hasn't been easy getting him to down his medicine. Hence, the nakedness. Thank goodness we went that route. Brian ended up puking buckets after we gave him the dose. I will spare you the details, but I will tell you that Shawn was covered!!

So we ended the day by cleaning up puke. Not my idea of a great ending to Easter, but what do I know? I am sure many parents around the world ended the day in much the same way, only they were cleaning up puke because their kids over did the candy intake. So, it probably won't be the last time.

On a brighter note, we slept in until 9:30 today. Shawn had taken the day to go to the Zoo. We didn't make it due to the crummy weather, but we got some work done around the house, so the day wasn't a total wash. I hope you all had a better Easter than the Borchardts!