"Mama"

This weekend, as some of you may know, was a rather rough one. We took a trip up to Orlando and planned on heading to Disney's Magic Kingdom on Saturday. On the way up to the resort, Colin got sick (yes, I'm using a euphemism for puked) in the car and we were detoured for a bit. After cleaning him and the car seat up, we got back on track toward our destination. Figuring that he had just gagged on the hashbrown from McDonald's he was given, we did not stop to think that maybe he was coming down with something. At this point, I would like to mention that our 14 month old child has never once thrown up until now.

Colin seemed happy as we got to Downtown Disney to meet up with family and we shopped for a while, got pictures taken with Santa and walked around without much of a complaint from him. That is, until we got to the resort.

I'll spare all the details of the horrible experience we had while checking into the resort and stick with the Colin aspect of the story for now.

Colin seemed to be doing well at the resort, asking for food and smiling while playing. Not thinking that the earlier incident meant anything, we fed him. In just a couple of hours, it came back up. We rushed for towels, cleaned the bed and Colin up and I threw the now soiled towels and clothes in the wash. Colin went back to acting happy.

Of course we no longer thought that the first bit of sickness was a fluke gagging, so we asked the family doctor, or as Colin calls him "Dorge", to have a look at Colin. Throughout the night, Colin cleaned out what was left in his stomach through several fits. After cleaning him and the bed up, I, again, threw the towels and the clothes in the wash. At this point, we're not keeping up with Colin when it comes to getting the towels clean.

We decided at some point that maybe Colin should not be nursing, so I took over more of the duties involved with keeping him clean and getting him asleep. If he'd have stayed with Rose the whole time, we would be begging (yes, literally) to nurse. At that point, daddy became the nurturer for a while.

On Saturday, after we all got a few hours of sleep in the morning, we did try to make a trip to Disney World. We got there, parked, got on the tram, got my ticket, road the monorail to the park, fed Colin, walked to the parade route to meet my family, and then...Colin threw up at Disney World, the happiest place on earth. We no longer cared to even try to make a day of the park, so we again road the monorail and the tram, got in the van and headed back to the condo. Colin acted not-so-happy, but did not throw up again and slept pretty well through most of the night. When he did have a problem, I was there to comfort him so that he wouldn't be trying to nurse off of mommy (meanwhile her heart is breaking because she can't feed her baby).

Over the whole weekend at the condo, Colin and I watched a lot of Barney together and I spent a good portion of Saturday laying in bed with him watching DVDs and nodding off from time to time. Though I hate to see my son sick, it was actually a bonding experience.

Now, the ride home, he loses it once more, we clean him up and head the rest of the way home. He doesn't lose it anymore for the whole evening. We did as the oncall doctor said and gave Colin nothing but Pedialyte for 8 hours and then gave him some rice after that. He ate well and acted happy. Rose, still not wanting him to nurse too much (she did let him some) handed him off to me so that I could put him to bed. An amazing thing happened and when we entered into Colin's room, he put his head down on me, closed his eyes and went to sleep on his own - for ME. It's always been fairly difficult for me to get Colin to sleep because what he wants to do is nurse before bed. Being that I'm not equipped for that, he will often cry for mommy when I'm the one trying to put him down. But this night, daddy is ok. And what's more, he cuddled as he went to sleep.

Enter Monday morning as I'm getting ready for work. Colin is acting happy and I'm giving him some Cheerios and getting him dressed so mommy can have a few more minutes of sleep. Colin normally in this situation goes looking for mommy once he's out of his high chair. Today, he's ok with daddy. He even laid still while I changed his diaper.

Rose got up as I got a phone call to go into work early on in the morning and I had to pass off Colin to her. For one of the very few times in history, Colin wanted me more than he wanted mommy. As I tried to get out the door, he kept coming back to me, arms out, saying "mama, mama". As I would pick him up, he would hug me tight. When I would try to put him down, he would fuss and want back up. As I really did leave, he was crying for "mama" once again.

Rose's theory is that because I took on a nurturing role this weekend, he identified me as "mama" instead of "dada" because to him mama is the one who nurtures. First of all, I think that's really smart. Secondly, I'll take it. I hate to see him sick, but I loved the bonding we had this weekend. If it takes being "mama" to get those hugs, I'll be mama.