Meeting Uncle B

For those of you who knew us when Katie was a baby, you remember the crying.  The ear piercing, 18 hours a day unrelenting crying.  The frustrated, upset belly, hungry but it hurts to eat crying.  To put it simply, Katie cried A LOT.  And poor Uncle B had no idea what he was in for when he was invited home for Christmas.....

A few days before Christmas we were hit by 'The Joy of the Season'.  You know that stomach bug that everyone so willingly shares around the holidays.  We got it, we ALL got it.  But Katie got the worst of it.  And of course being the generously giving little bundle she was, she made sure we ALL shared in the worst of it.

After a night of feeling less than great we load the car up and prepare for the 3 hour drive down to Grandma and Grandpa's.  Of course Katie, as we strap her in the car seat, is crying.  Poor Erik looks at us from his car seat next to her, his eyes imploring us to 'Please, just make the crying stop!'.  Believe me Erik, if we could we would.

About 10 minutes before we reach Grandma's house we hear Katie.  Yep, she is awake and you guessed it - crying.  But even more than the crying we hear THE EXPLOSION.  Then we smell the explosion.  Looks like our precious little girl isn't completely over her bout with the bug.  Dave and I look at each other, wondering if it is worth finding a place to stop and change her diaper or if we should just keep going.   Deciding that we'd be reaching our destination in about the same amount of time as it would take us to find a place to stop we kept on going.  Guess what, we made the WRONG choice.  That being said, I'm not sure there would have been a right choice.

So we arrive and make the mad dash into the house with the diaper bag and the screaming banshee that once was Katie.  In the process of changing her diaper we realized just how sensitive our poor little baby's skin was.  Just a few minutes of contact with that horrible substance that exploded from our little bundle (I hesitate to call it poop because it seemed to take on a life of it's own) caused red, blistered sores on that poor little bottom.


Here we are faced with a screaming banshee that has a blistered butt.  Anything we put on that little bottom seems to cause pain.  The 'gentle soothing' baby wipes, the healing protecting diaper balm, even the diaper itself brings on a new round of gut wrenching cries.  If putting anything on that little butt hurts we decide to leave it bare!  Let the fresh air get to that little bum and hopefully help clear up those horrible sores that developed so quickly.


After the whole diaper ordeal we get everything from the car unloaded and shuffled up the stairs getting us all situated.  For those of you who have never had kids, you will never understand the amount of packing and unpacking that is involved in taking a child under the age of 2 along for a week at Grandma and Grandpa's.  As we are upstairs getting us and Erik settled Grandma was downstairs in the living room with Katie who was naked on a waterproof mat, screaming at the top of her little 5 month old lungs.  This is the first time any of us meet Uncle B. 

Hearing the new arrivals at the house we all come downstairs and get a glimpse of Uncle B's face wearing a look of utter dismay.  What kind of a family is he joining?

As the afternoon progresses so does Katie's diarrhea and her diaper rash.  Feeling frustrated and unable to soothe our poor little girl we make a call to our pediatrician (who is now 3 hours away) and tell them about the screaming banshee and her red, blistered butt.  Aaahhh, they have a medicine that just may help.  Prescription called in and arrangements made for it to be picked up.  Relief is on it's way!!

Lucky for us, we have a pharmacist in the family.  After an hour or so here comes Aunt Jackie, our super hero of the day!  She has the medicine - MAGIC BUTT CREAM!  No, that is not our name for it although it did work magic.  The actual name on the vial of cream that Aunt Jackie brought was called 'Magic Butt Cream'.

After a few applications that poor little bottom was beginning to look better and our screaming banshee was slowly changing back to our crying baby.  You can't imaging how good simple crying can sound after a few hours of screaming.  I'm not sure Uncle B was as impressed with the change as the rest of us were.

We finally make it to nighttime and bedtime.  Dave the kids and I are all sleeping upstairs and Aunt Mary and Uncle B are sleeping in the basement.  A full 2 stories below our now crying, not screaming little bundle.  Katie does sleep at least a little that night, but still dealing with the stomach bug she has a few bouts of diarrhea.  Every time she fills her diaper she fills the house with her cries.

Christmas morning brings a bleary eyed Uncle B up from the basement drawn by the sounds of an excited 2 year old looking at all the presents Santa left under the tree and the rest of the household filling coffee cups.  Christmas day and night were fairly uneventful, with Katie's little butt healing nicely and the rest of the family settling in to the normal routine of trying to console the frequent crying of Katie.

The following morning, as we were all beginning our day we hear the sound of packing suitcases in the basement.  Aunt Mary and Uncle B had decided to cut their stay a little short.  They used the excuse of 'getting the dogs from the kennel a little early' as a reason to leave a day early.  After good-bye hugs and Christmas wishes we watch Uncle B back their truck out the driveway and wave as they head off home, basking in the silence of a quiet, crying free ride.

We've often wondered if this first time meeting with our little bundle of joy is the reason Aunt Mary and Uncle B never started a family of their own.