Our Maine Trip

I was excited to travel back to the Llama farm this year.  My husband and I were both in need of a vacation to relax and rest.  It was our last vacation together as a family of 4 so I wanted to make it count.  Well...destiny had other plans that's for sure!  

Packing was much easier this year, mainly because I knew what I was doing this year.  The night before we left Sassy kept us up all night (she's been having issues sleeping, we think it has to do with the new baby coming).  We were exhausted driving up but made the best of it and both of us stayed in a great mood.  The weather predicted rain, which started about an hour and a half into our drive.

Daddy and Peanut at the first rest stop.

We stopped at an LL Bean outlet and visited some trout (which the kids always think is pretty cool) and nana bought the kids some mud boots so they could splash in the rain.

Here fishy fishy!

It was raining for the first 2 days we were in Maine.  The kids went for a walk in the rain and happily splashed in the puddles in their new boots.  We went to a few places in between bouts of rain.  Peanut  was in heaven at Jasper Beach collecting rocks and throwing rocks into the ocean.  The sound of the rocks was amazing.  Unfortunately I don't have pictures.  We brought 2 cameras.  We discovered one camera was missing it's memory card (after we took a dozen pictures or so), and the second camera had it's memory card...but the card was full.  Needless to say, we missed out on pictures that day.

That Sunday Sassy and I awoke with congestion and sinus pressure.  The pollen count was extremely high in the area so it wasn't surprising.  We were happy to see the sun and began the day.  As I was helping Sassy get dressed I discovered she was covered in hives and wheals!  Soon after she developed red cheeks with a hive or two and a dry sounding cough.  Out came the Benadryl!  All I had was Benadryl with artificial dyes.  I don't think Sassy has ever had artificial dyes, and about an hour after her first dose she complained of feeling sick.  We found a local drug store and was able to buy the dye-free version.  She as still "loopy" but wasn't complaining about feeling sick.  The hives continued throughout the day.  As a precaution we spent the day in Machias, which had a hospital.  

Hives and wheals despite Benadryl

We couldn't figure out what was causing the reaction.  She has never has a reaction like this before.  We brought all our own food and all our own bedding which was washed before we left and was all made of organic cotton.  The farm doesn't spray any chemicals.  The only thing we could think of was the pollen.  Our pediatricians office agreed that was the most likely cause.  I was afraid to continue to keep her immune system on "high alert".  She was getting the maximum dose allowed for her age every 4 hours and the hives still continued.  Her cheeks would get red and she would complain of a "sick mouth".  The Llama farm was 30 minutes away from the closest hospital and we decided to pack up and leave that night.  So, at 7 pm that night we packed up the car and made the 6 hour drive home.  We kept a close eye on her the whole way home and at 1 am Monday morning we were home.

Sassy slept in bed with me that night so I could keep a close watch over her.  Less than 24 hours her symptoms resolved and she no longer needed Benadryl.  I started her on some Live Life to help clear all of the chemicals from the Benadryl from her system.  My husband wasn't back to work until Wednesday so we tried to make the most of our time together.  It was raining (of course, because it was sunny in Maine by that time!), so we took the kids to the mall and out to eat.  When the rain stopped we brought them to the park to play soccer.

Out playing soccer

Tuesday night we got ingredients to make pizza.  I made some gluten free dough and let them make their own personal pizza's.  Despite having to cut our Maine vacation short, they seemed to still have fun which is all we really wanted.

Making Pizza's!

Our vacation definitely wasn't what we planned, but we still had fun together as a family. We were able to look on the bight side and are thankful that Sassy's reaction didn't get any worse than it did. It was bittersweet for me.  In 10 weeks we will no longer be a family of four, but will be a family of 5!