One 24 hour period in the life of a Dad

Not that I think this particular day was the best or the worst, just interesting--out of the ordinary for me. A little scary, a little boring, and more than a little fattening.

11:30 PM Thursday: I wake up on the floor of Jack and Ryan's room. Some Benadryl allergy medication was the culprit. I fell asleep there while Jack was going to sleep in his bed. There is a rug on the floor, but not the most comfortable of places. I had only meant to be there for just a bit back around 8 PM. Bridget had thought I was sleeping with Jack not on the floor. Knowing about my sleepiness from taking some allergy medication she thought she would just let me sleep rather than wake me up. Now my arms are all tingly from being in a bad position and my leg is numb.

11:45 AM: Captain Crunch is good anytime of day really. I finish off the last of the box.

1:15 AM Friday: I decide I feel tired enough to fall asleep so I go lay down in bed. Ahhh, so much better than the floor.

2:15 AM: This blows. I am still awake. I know I am tired, but as is often the case with me, once I wake up from a sleeping I am not able to go back to sleep for hours. I get up and grab my Ipod and start up my computer so I can load some podcasts and new music on it. Plus it was almost dead I can charge it while I am doing this.

3:00 AM: Back to bed.

3:30 AM: Still awake.

3:50-ish AM: I see the clock that reads 3:50, but then I fell asleep shortly thereafter.

4:30 or so: Ryan comes into bed with us for some reason after he woke up to use the bathroom. Whatever, but crap, I am awake again...

4:45 AM I get out of bed which had become too crowded. Rather than go through the effort of getting Ryan back in the bed when he was comfortable snuggling Bridget and possibly waking others in the house up I go to Ryan's bed and then I fell asleep pretty fast.

6:30 or so: Jack from the bunk below wakes up. I try to get him to go back to sleep, but to no avail. He gets up later, but I stayed in bed until about 7:30 when Ryan woke me up to say that Jack had dumped out the rest of the box of Lucky Charms on the table (Yes, I bought the bad cereal, Bridget buys the healthier stuff). Luckily the box was mostly gone when he did this, but nonetheless there is a little pile of Lucky Charms that flows over his bowl. He is eating the marshmallows only, of course. My plan is just to stay sane and make it to the big event that night, dinner at Morton's of Chicago--my birthday dinner out. Joan and Leroy are taking out Ilene and Steve and Bridget and I there for some serious meat. I can't wait.

9:00 AM: I am off to work. I wasn't scheduled, but they said I could come in and build some bikes. This seems like a good plan, especially when I know that me staying at home with little sleep will probably not be a good thing. I am in a good mood, but who knows how long that would last. Building up new bikes is sort of relaxing, plus I am getting paid for it. We can use the money. Once at work I start on a couple of kids bikes. One is for one person in particular. Once I finish it I call her up and leave a message. She comes in shortly thereafter, but wants one without any chips in the paint. Sure, fine whatever. These are only 100 dollar bikes, and they come usually with some sort of flaw. Luckily, the next one I open is flawless. I build that and she takes it. She is one of those high maintenance sort of women I can tell. Hair is perfect and stylish--like she had paid a bunch to make it look trendy and cool. She obviously works out next door at the 24 Hr Fitness place, and she possibly has some eating disorder because she is way to thin for a mom of two children. She also has a nose piercing to go along with her obviously very expensive workout outfit. Portland is weird sometimes.

I start on another cheap bike, this one an adult bike. Cheap bikes are often easier to built than expensive bikes. They come mostly assembled and they are made to go together fairly fast because it is less costly for some Asian kid to do it in China than for a shop monkey like me to do it here. All I have to do is unbox it, get the mass of packing material that is taped and strapped on off and install the saddle/seatpost, then flip the stem, install the front wheel, connect the front brake and adjust the rear brake and derailleurs and then air up the tires and make sure the handlebar and levers are in the right spots. Not difficult. I get to the last step and I find that the stem was mis-welded. I start to look for another stem in a box of spare parts when....

12:15 PM or so: I get a call from Bridget. I can tell from the tone of her voice that something has happened. Jack fell from a tall stool at McDonald's. He hit the side of his face and head pretty good. He was crying and then threw up shortly thereafter. Bridget is at home and has changed herself and Jack's clothes. She has also put in a call to the Advice Nurse on whether we should take him to the hospital.

12:45 PM: Advice nurse has called and told her to wait for Jack to wake him up after one hour (he fell asleep after returning home, which is normal for that time of day). I am on my way home.

1:20 PM: I arrive home in time to help wake up Jack. He seems to be OK. Bridget is on the phone with the advice nurse at the same time and she says to keep an eye on him. If he vomits again or is non-responsive then we are to take him to the hospital. Jack seems OK, but we give him some Children Tylenol-type stuff because he acts like he is in pain. He says his head hurts. I also gave him a few M&M's

I forget the rest of the time frame here, but for the next hour or so he just lays in my lap. He will answer questions, but we can tell that he is not feeling well. He wanted a vomit bucket so I got one. He holds it for around 30 minutes. But he didn't act like he was really going to throw up.

Ryan during this whole time is fine. He is watching TV or drawing. He is curious, but staying clear of Jack. He really didn't like the throwing up at McDonald's earlier.

Bridget is on the phone with her mom. Ilene is with her mom getting some physical therapy. Grandma Joan's physical therapy office is at the hospital. While talking to her, Joan says something to the effect that he is fine, it is not a big deal, etc., when Jack throws up again. No, Jack is not fine. Bridget immediately hangs up and calls the Advice Nurse again. She leaves a message with the current status of things. I want her to take Jack to the ER. She wants to wait and see what the advice nurse says. Jack is responsive for the most part. Not hopping and jumping around, but he seems a little better. After about 5 minutes she agrees that he should go. She takes him and I stay home with Ryan. Soon after they leave the advice nurse calls and says that he should go to the ER to have him checked out and I say that they already left.

Around 2:30 PM: Ilene calls from the hospital after seeing Jack and says that she will come and get Ryan so that I can go the hospital to be with Jack and Bridget. After she arrives I take off. She was disturbed by the way jack was acting--really spacey. I am not panicked for some reason. I am pretty sure that everything will be fine.

When I get to Jack's room he is just laying there in one of those hospital gowns, just a child-size version with penguins and fish on it. Kind of cute actually. He is not really our regular Jack. Poor little guy. He is kind of dazed. Earlier his eyes were dilated and while you could wake him easily he would drift off to sleep. Shortly he will be off to get a CT Scan of his little head. I go with him to that since Bridget is pregnant and can't be exposed to the radiation or whatever. Jack is obviously not a big fan of having to stay still while this machine makes a big racket around his head. I smile and try to act like it is no big deal. I tell him he is doing great. He is supposed to stay still while this is going on. Luckily, he does not try to sit up until after it is done. He was a little scared, and I held him for a bit before laying him back down on his bed so they can wheel him back to his room. He doesn't mind that part. I can tell he likes the bed and getting pushed around.

Back in the room Jack just lays there. Bridget and I are on either side of his bed. I asked if he wanted the TV on. He said yes. Spongebob was on...he likes Spongebob and focuses on the TV. The results of the scan are supposed to take about 30 minutes... we wait, but we both feel that everything will be fine. Suddenly Jack starts talking excitedly about the Spongebob Episode. It is just like the lightswitch was turned on. You would not think anything had happened to him were it not for the red line going down the side of his face that came from smacking the tile floor at McDonalds. The line is the width of the gap between the tiles. I imagine it will be there for a few days.

Regardless, it is clear that Jack's little body has recovered. Soon the Doctor comes in and confirms this. Still, I sure I let out a sigh of relief. I take off back home, followed shortly thereafter by Bridget and Jack.

Jack is doing so well, that we decide to go out to dinner as planned. Jack is home and eating pizza and running around at full speed. No complaints of nausea or head aches or anything. We have given him anything to mask any pain either. The medicine we gave him earlier has tossed up with his vomit before we went to the hospital.

6:00 PM: Cassie watches him that evening and she has our cell numbers if anything comes up. Jack is very excited to have Cassie there. He quite likes having her babysite them. Ryan arrives the same time as Cassie since Ilene had been watching him. We leave to Morton. I have my cell phone close the whole time but no calls. I didn't expect there to be though. Dinner was great. Huge shrimp cocktail. Huge salad with bacon bits, chopped tomato and blue cheese dressing. Huge New York Steak, one of the best ever. I couldn't finish it all. Big slice of cheesecake too. Cheesecake actually came from New York City too.

8:45 - 9:00 PM we arrive back home. All is well, and Jack is still going at full speed. We all go to bed, thankful. Today, was one of those days when I realized how lucky I was to have my guys. They are great little boys.

Update: Jack is still fine and slept almost through the night--which is typical. When he did wake up he went back to sleep like normal. He just wanted mommy or daddy to snuggle him a bit.