Since Little d was about nine months old she's been getting carsick. I've posted about it before, so I won't belabor the details. But it changed my life. Instead of David and I travelling to long distance birthday parties or weddings or whatevers, we stayed close to home. Or one of us would go and leave Little d at home. I made enemies with my ex-sister in law and my mother in law over it. Which to be perfectly honest, probably would have happened anyway.
I've spent hours and hours stressing over how to get her to and from things. Over calculating minutes in the car and sleeping times and dozens of other things that no one else ever gives a thought to. I know carsickness is not the end of the world, but somehow it became my arch nemises, my own personal demon. And I spent countless hours making sure it didn't happen--not on my watch! D seemed much more nonchalant about it, but he was a good sport to humor my fanaticism.
Then last year I bought a box of Dramamine--chewable for kids. I thought that it was for kids 6 and up and finally Little d was old enough. Imagine my surprise to read the label that had dosing for kids 2-6 also. Anyway. There never seemed to be a right time to use it. Until this summer. Our POC trip.
The arrangement was this. I would drive down with Little d and Little m. (Little m has absolutely no problems in the car.) D would drive down with my mom and Little md--whom we have yet to test out on car trips while awake. I waited until after lunch to give Little d her tablet. Then exactly one hour later we set out. She was sleepy before we left which I took as a good sign that the medicine was in her system. After about 15 minutes of driving she would look like she was dosing off, and then she would wake herself and say "mom turn on the radio" or "mom sing Twinkle Twinkle" as if to keep herself awake. She had asked repeatedly if she would get sick if she stayed awake and I told her that I was very sure the medicine would help her even if she was awake.
My daughter and I talked and visited the entire trip down. One whole hour with her in the car and awake and not throwing up. By the time we reached POC I was ecstatic. In fact beside myself with joy! This was a day that I had waited for for so long. I pointed out landmarks and got to hear--for the first time--"mom, are we there yet??" And I loved every minute of it. Little m fell asleep and drooled the whole way down...
***********************************
Something else that I conquered in POC was going to Memaw's house. I haven't been in the house since she passed away. My grandfather lives with my mom and dad, and we needed to go get a recliner out of the house for him while we were in POC. I went up with D to load it up. It was kind of weird to be there, but not as emotional as I thought. Of course here I am writing about it a month later, so the feelings aren't as strong as they were.
I had a dream about her the other night. She was playing the piano at a wedding and I was desperately searching for a camera to take a picture. I was so happy to see her again and to get a second chance to see her play the piano. I kept thinking I need to take a picture of this because I never did it when she was alive. I woke up with a mix of happy and sad.
I still haven't been in Grandma Hawes' house. I think that may be hard too. I probably won't find out until Christmas...
****************************
I have a new demon now though. I'll have to write a post about that soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment