a weekend for the books

im not quite sure if its a comedy or a tragedy, but it is definitely off the pages of some sort of thriller.

lets just start at the beginning.
bennett threw up two times one night, i think it was tuesday night.  ew, gross, yuck.  honestly though its amazing what does NOT really gross you out when its your own child.  i just wanted to hug the fool out of his little shivering, sleepy, big eyed self.  by morning he was back to himself and we didnt know if it was a virus or something he ate. 

i had a really bad week pregnancy wise.  just the norm.
college roommate and best friend mandy made the six hour drive down my way on thursday for a long weekend getaway...to find me on the up side of a pretty down day.
and then the next morning she found me down down DOWN after some toilet hugging during the night.
virus? pregnancy?
at that point, we didnt know.
friend mandy turned into my personal nurse/babysitter as i snailed my way around the house trying to get us all ready to head to the beach.
and i mean sluggedddddd around.  most of my time was spent dragging myself from room to room throwing random items into bags and telling myself it was what we needed for a long weekend at the beach.
then super mandy changed hats and, after packing the bags and children into the car, drove me and my brood to the beach.
and the ride down sounded something like this: {warning: you dont want to play this at work}

mandy took it all in stride.
bennett had on headphones watching some dvd {lifesaver} and i was too...UGH to really be upset by it.
{awful, i know}
we stopped several times to re-apply the paci but little lady did NOT want to be in that seat.

we finally made it to the beach and i slumped around for the next couple days.
i think over those two days i had a couple pieces of toast and a cup of broth, and believe me that was all for the baby.
it did not do this body good.  just more nausea and exhaustion.

saturday we had a huge fourth of july party, as we do, and i did manage some crab trap checking, pool side sitting, and pics of the babes:

 
{dont worry, this feisty escape artist only slightly wounded steele's ego with a quick snip to his nose.  a couple claw-rearing snaps at the big black beast and then a quick dunk in the boiler and he was quite the tasty addition to our saturday feast  - or so i hear}

{fourth of july parade on the island.  bennett participated once before}
 

{"i am sad momma"}

 

{goggle war wounds}

after some more toilet hugging, tears, and zofran, by saturday night i was feeling better.

and then i woke with a start to a SCREAMING crying bennett "mama! mama! maaaaamaaaaa!" through the monitor at 11:30pm.
he and emory shared a room all weekend and when i ran in there she was awake but quiet and kicking. 
bennett, on the other hand, was on all fours on the bed shaking with fear.  he was burning up and i just knew he had his first nightmare.
especially after all the things he started telling me, about trains running off the track, cars trying to hit him, and boats going "all the way in the water."
so i laid in bed just stroking his hair and trying to talk him down.
i asked him to roll over so i could scratch his back and he said he couldnt because he would fall into the water and sink.
that, and his burning hot body, scared me and i carried him upstairs to stephen.
i laid him in the bed next to stephen and he briefly fell asleep while i looked for a thermometer, which was 30 years old and mercury and we couldnt shake it down. we got a reading over 103 so i decided to take him back downstairs and just sleep in the other twin bed with him.
that is until he kept mumbling and talking and when i realized he was talking TO me, and not just in his sleep, i got back in bed with him just to experience one of the scariest things ive experienced as a mother thus far.
he started having all out hallucinations. 
he kept talking about boats sinking and cars wrecking and trains coming off the tracks but the worse thing was that i could not get him to understand that we were not sinking in the water but actually in bed at mimi and docs house at the beach.  and then he freaked out and started moaning that "its getting so dark momma! it keeps getting so dark!"

eventually he said: "oh! okay.  i see our house!" {his eyes were open this whole time, he was never asleep since we were upstairs} "there it is right there" {pointing at me, staring into my eyes} "my house is the one with the garden.  oh! and look.  there is mommy and emory" {he never calls her that...always 'em-bop'} "mommy is holding emory. i see them below me.  everything is below me."

and then he wouldnt respond to me while i was talking to him, he just kept telling this third party about our house and what "mommy and emory" were doing in the garden "underneath" him.
it was all i could do not to go into a crazy mommy-brained freak out.

needless to say i scooped him up and headed back upstairs.
and ran into mandy in the hallway, who had just left the bathroom after her own toilet hugging episode.

SERIOUSLY

we gave bennett some infants tylenol and put him to bed on a pallet in our room. we all fell asleep well after midnight/one a.m, and well after some serious prayer and late night googling "children fever hallucinations."

bennett woke up a little sluggish sunday morning and held a low grade fever for another day or so.
and he kept asking to go take a nap :(.
i woke up sunday morning feeling pregnant... but not sick.
i took a solo drive to publix to get some formula, but mainly to have a big ugly praise-and-cry-fest in my car.
a little selfish thankful for finally feeling better but a LOT thankful and happy that my babies were ok and that we had been gifted with their fabulous selves.

and then i came home and everyone in the house started dropping like flies with some crazy mutant stomach/fever virus.
vacation smaycation.

despite a low grade fever, benney woe did enjoy the orange beach fireworks from the front porch sunday night

but dear, sweet friend mandy had to drive the six hours back home on monday sick as a dog.
"thanks for coming to see me friend!"
:)
:(

just another crazy chapter in an otherwise pretty un-crazy life!
its amazing how resilient children are, though.

looking at them you would never think any of these things happened just hours before

i feel so blessed to be their momma!

and that my little boy is back to his rambunctious, CLEAR THINKING self.
whew!

heres to hoping your weekend was all kinds of less-crazy than this! :)