Some days...

...it doesn't pay to leave the house!

Morgan woke up in a good mood, not that she slept very well, but she was very happy in the morning, as you can see:

I fed her at 10:30 a.m. and then agreed to meet up with someone from Craigslist to buy an enormous plush caterpillar. We agreed to meet at around 11:30 in a Wal-Mart parking lot. We recently installed a new car seat, because Morgan's getting too big for her first one. Now, I have to take her out of the seat, instead of taking the carrier out of the base. Anyway, I loaded her into the car and gave her a little sip of milk, just to make sure she wasn't hungry/thirsty. She was happy and content and off we went. About 3/4 of the way there, she starts rubbing her arms on the restraints, trying to scratch them. She's always wanting to scratch her arms and I'm trying to tell her to stop, but how do you tell a 7 1/2 month old anything? Just as I'm turning into the Wal-Mart parking lot I hear her cry and look in the baby-view mirror and she's spewing milk, projectile-style and choking. I panic, put on my hazard lights and pull into a spot out of traffic, but it's not really a parking spot. I leave the car on, jump out and into the back seat and frantically undo the buckles and pull her out. She's screaming because she finally cleared the milk from her throat and was understandably scared by having been choking. She's covered in soy formula and so is the bottom of the car seat. I think she spit up even more than I fed her. I've never seen this level of expulsion from her and it scared me. I was just glad I wasn't still on the highway, because things may have been worse. I pulled that car into the first available section of pavement and flew to my choking baby. Out on the highway, I might have swerved and I'm just getting used to my new Honda CR-V and SUVs (well, it's a "crossover") can roll if you're not careful.

Anyway, she calmed down after I got her out of the seat and I attempted to sop up some of the mess with burp cloths. I temporarily put her in the seat, unrestrained, and she was happy playin with the straps (she *loves* straps). She was too wet and I forgot a change of clothes, so I loaded her into the stroller and we went into Wal-Mart to buy her another onesie. Oh, and I had parked at the far end of the parking lot and she would not let me put her back in that car seat, so I had to walk the stroller all the way across the parking lot in the Texas heat. We go in, buy an outfit and proceed to the bathroom to change. I haven't blogged in a while, so I'm sure I haven't mentioned Morgan's intense fear of flushing public toilets. I know it must sounds like a swooshing vortex of evil, but you'd think she'd get used to it after a while. I found this out a couple of weeks ago in a Luby's bathroom. I was changing her diaper and every time someone would flush, she's looked panicked and scream. I even took her into a stall to show her where the noise was coming from and she was still freaking out. I held her tight, but she didn't want anything to do with it. So, there we are in the Wal-Mart bathroom and someone comes in and flushes and she gives me that look - "it's the evil swooshing vortex!!" and starts to scream. I console her and lay her back down and she screams again. After lots of picking up and putting down, I get her changed and then she doesn't want to get in the stroller, because she's still scared. I strap her in anyway, so we can get away from the bathroom. Then, she doesn't want to get back in the car seat, as she is assuredly reliving her recent choking trauma. I fixed her a bottle of juice to rehydrate her and that pacified her enough to get her in the car. I drove through the get some lunch and then went to a friend's to drop off a birthday present and we headed home. She seemed pretty happy and I had given her the juice bottle to hold, but she kept turning it upside down and the nipple was resting on the seat and I just knew juice was leaking everywhere. I really didn't care at that point, though, since it was going to be washed anyway. She fell asleep about 1/2 way home, but woke up just as we were getting into the neighborhood. She was fussing a little and when I pulled into the garage, she was wiggly. I parked, got out and as I was rounding the car, I heard her scream. I opened the door and she let out another scream and spewed juice everywhere. She started choking again and I fumbled to get her out of the seat and held her as she continued to vomit juice all over me. I didn't care one bit, though, as I was more worried about her choking and I felt so bad for her. I don't think she has ever thrown up in her life and I know I hate that feeling. It's not like spitting up, where it just runs out her mouth. She was actually heaving and choking and sputtering. I was near tears wondering what was wrong with her.

She finally stops spewing and I call my husband. I tell him what's going on and that I'm going to call the doctor. I then call the doctor's office and they make me an appointment for 2 hours later. Next, I call my dad to come over and take care of Morgan while I get the car cleaned up a little. I had to install the old car seat so I could drive her to the doctor, since the new one was saturated. My dad came over and Morgan was happy as a clam, like nothing happened. She didn't have a fever or anything. I fed her again and she kept it down for half an hour, so I called to cancel the doctor's appointment. She was perfectly fine the rest of the day and I think it was just a fluke. I think it was a combination of too many air bubbles from these cheap bottles I bought her (I got them so she could grip them better) and car sickness.

Anyway, we went through all that so we could get this ginormous caterpillar:

I guess all's well that ends well... :Þ